Student leadership training takes place behind ER doors

The high-pitched screams made it difficult for 16-year-old Amber Karnes to concentrate on what the emergency room nurse was saying.

The anguished cries of "Help me! Please help me!" from down the hall went on for several minutes as Karnes learned how the various machines and switches in St. Francis Medical Center's trauma room are used to save people's lives.

Earlier in the day, she'd watched as a worker in the hospital's lab dissected a human heart. She'd seen a tumor attached to a uterus, heard stories about suffering and healing.

The experience left Karnes and the other 24 local high school students who received a behind-the-scenes look at St. Francis on Wednesday feeling overwhelmed.

"It's hard to deal with," said Karnes, a 16-year-old junior from Notre Dame Regional High School. "I guess you just get used to it if you're here everyday, but it's troublesome."

Students from Notre Dame, Central and Saxony Lutheran high schools participating in the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce's student leadership academy spent six hours touring St. Francis and learning about the various jobs and technology there.

The leadership academy is designed to develop leadership potential in youth through interactive tours, panel discussions and demonstrations at local businesses.

Several of the students, including Karnes, are interested in pursuing careers in health care. They spoke with nurses, technicians, pharmacists, administrators, pastors and emergency workers about their responsibilities at the hospital.

"I was surprised by how ready they are for anything," said 16-year-old Zac Hudson, a student at Central. "The people who work here seem tough. They're really busy and have hard hours."

Students toured the emergency room, explored the hospital's emergency helicopter and donned surgery scrubs and practiced using surgical instruments.

But it was seeing human organs, including a human brain, up close for the first time in the hospital's lab that had the biggest impact on 17-year-old Jennifer Pancoast.

"I pictured them differently, bigger or smaller than they really are," said Pancoast, a Central student. "I was also surprised at how fast it all happens, how everything works together here."

cclark@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 128