Exploring medicine

Twin sisters Katie and Hannah Beaton already have their sights set on a future career in medicine.

Both girls, 15 years old and freshmen at Central High School, love children and want to tie that into their health care professions. Hannah thinks she wants to be a pediatric nurse and Katie's goal is to become an obstetrician/gynecologist.

The girls are enrolled in the Explorer Post 4077, offered through Southeast Missouri Hospital in conjunction with the Boy Scouts of America. The program is available for young men and women, ages 14 to 20, who are interested in health care as a possible career choice.

For the students enrolled in the Explorer Post 4077, they're provided health-care information on everything from the surgical and pediatric floors of a hospital to nursing home care and dietetics.

"We really try to give them a firsthand look at what's going on inside the hospital, and in the health-care industry," said Emily Jones, a registered nurse at Southeast Missouri Hospital who oversees the Explorer program.

During one program, students were allowed to prick their own finger to draw blood so they could figure out their blood type. At another program, they were given a tour of the hospital's helicopter.

Those experiences are why the Beaton twins continue to attend the Explorer post twice a month.

"It's a lot of fun," Katie said. "It's really enjoyable and more hands-on than school. You're really learning a lot of stuff you probably wouldn't anywhere else."

Deb Goodhart, center, passes out micro-fiber cloths used for cleaning to sisters Katie and Hannah Beaton, both 15, while explaining Southeast Missouri Hospital's Environmental Services on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2007. The Explorers club meets twice a month to learn about healthcare professions. (Kit Doyle)

Last week the group, which meets twice a month, heard a presentation from Deb Goodhart, the director of environmental services at Southeast Missouri Hospital. The program was called "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Keeping the Hospital Clean."

"There's a lot of cleaning that goes on in a hospital," Goodhart told a group of about 10 students.

The more than 200 million square feet of Southeast Missouri Hospital is cleaned on a daily basis. Sometimes certain areas are cleaned more than once a day, Goodhart said.

About 40 young people from across the area are enrolled in the Explorer Post, and anywhere from 10 to 30 students will attend the monthly programs.

"It really depends what program is taking place that month as to how many students show up," Jones said. "We also don't want to interfere with their school work -- that comes first."

Brian Gates, a senior at Jackson High School, tries not to miss any of the programs. He plans to be a pediatric nurse or doctor in the future.

"It's so amazing to see all this stuff firsthand," he said.

Several months ago, Gates job-shadowed a nurse on the obstetrics floor of Southeast Missouri Hospital. While he was job shadowing, a young woman he knew gave birth.

The Explorer Post offers information in the following areas: clinical laboratory services, dentistry, dietetics, health information and communication, health services administrators, medicine, mental, physical and social specialties, pharmacy, podiatry and public health.

For more information on the program, contact the Generations Family Resource Center at 651-5825.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246