Medical Explorers Program

Medical Explorers Program

What is Exploring?

Exploring exists to teach important life and career skills to young men and women ages 14-20 from all backgrounds through immersive career experiences and mentorship provided by community and business leaders. Together, we equip young people with character, leadership and life skills that can be used both today and in their future careers.

Exploring is based on a unique and dynamic relationship between youth and the organizations in their communities. Businesses and community organizations initiate a career-specific Explorer post or club by matching their people and organizational resources to the career interests of youth in the community. The result is a program of interactive activities that helps youth pursue their special interests, grow, and develop.

Exploring works with thousands of local, regional, and national businesses and organizations to deliver the Exploring programs representing hundreds of different career fields.

About the Partnership

Memorial Hospital’s Explorer Post is a partnership with Belleville East, Belleville West, and Governor French Academy High Schools, as well as the Greater St. Louis Council of the Boy Scouts of America.  The goal is to expose high school students interested in a health care career to a variety of health care professions.

Working with the health care instructors, biology instructors and counselling staff, forty students per semester are selected by the schools to participate in the program.  Most of the fees are paid by our medical staff.  These students are invited to attend four sessions on Saturday mornings.  Each session has four rotations, so the groups are never larger than 10.  This gives students time to interact with staff in the small group settings.

Sessions Details

The first session features emergency room nurses providing hands on experiences assessing a patient with a focus on taking vital signs. During the first session students spend additional time with therapy services, radiology, and lab.  Session two focuses on cardiology with hands on experiences for echocardiograms, EKG’s, dissecting a pig heart, and the Cardiac Cath Lab.  Nursing staff and physicians assists students in dissecting the pig hearts to better understand the physiology of the heart. Students will see some cath films and work with some of the lab’s demo equipment.

The third session is surgery where students are gowned up and taken into the surgery suites.  Students work with an Operating Room First Assist Nurse to practice suturing.  Another group will go to another suite and practice laparoscopic technique using trainers.  Another group will “play” on the DiVinci surgical robot in training mode, again under the direction of surgical staff.  The final session will be with a surgeon or anesthesiologist explaining their work.

The fourth session will be begin with HR answering questions about how to get into healthcare using tuition reimbursement.to the large group, EMS, pharmacy, respiratory and pathology.  Each have session talking about their careers.