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Health Care Exploration
Planning Ahead for a Career in Health Care
MultiCare has a number of ways to support your interest in a health care career. The health care field offers a variety of opportunities that provide a very secure and comfortable future. Some of our programs include Nurse Camp and Medical Explorers for high school students and we offer the chance to Job Shadows for those interested in a particular area of the medical field.
Job Shadows: Job shadowing is a day-in-the-life experience option where individuals can learn about a job by walking through the work day with a current employee. Job shadowing is a short term, four to eight hour, unpaid exposure to the workplace in an occupational area of interest. Those applicants who are placed can witness firsthand the work environment, employ-ability and occupational skills in practice, the value of professional training and potential career options. Job shadowing is designed to increase career awareness, help model student behavior through examples and reinforce the link between classroom learning and work requirements.
The job shadow experience can be valuable for established job-seekers considering changing careers. If you know you want to change careers but are not sure what career is right for you, job-shadowing can give you a taste of what specific careers are like.
If you are interested in a job shadow opportunity, please visit our job shadow page to learn more about requirements and to request a job shadow.
Medical Explorers Post #647: Provides health career hands-on educational opportunities for high school students in the Tacoma or South Puget Sound area. This program, which MultiCare organizes in partnership with the Learning for Life division of the Boy Scouts of America, enrolls students of both genders who are in high school and are interested in going into health care professions. The program runs from September to June each year (during the school year in 2012-13 ), meeting once monthly for 2 or 2.5 hours. Applications are accepted March through June 22, 2012 for the program beginning the following school year and are available on-line by March.
Monthly meetings consist of presentations by health care professionals, tours within the hospital and simulated hands-on experiences to expose students to a variety of health professions. These activities allow young people to explore health care careers through the interaction with health care providers in the context of their work at MultiCare and within the hospital setting. The students are asked to provide 16 hours of community service as part of the post activities and membership, and are given opportunities to provide community outreach through MultiCare programs, if they wish. Outside community service activities can also count toward these required 16 hours. The cost is $25 per year for membership, and $15 for returning Medical Explorer students.
*Note - the MultiCare Medical Explorer chapter is transferring to Medical Reserve Corps (MRC). Please check back after May 15th for new membership information.
Returning Medical Explorers Application (PDF)
Medical Explorers Post #647 Flyer (PDF)
Nurse Camp: Exposes high school students (currently in their Sophomore or Junior years of high school when applying) to a variety of health care careers and the nursing profession through hands-on learning and job shadowing. Nurse Camp is a week-long event that runs 8:30 am to 4:00 pm for four days in mid-July. At Nurse Camp, students shadow professional nurses and other allied health care providers as they care for patients in select areas of the hospital. Students learn surgical procedure, participate in mock emergencies, and visit local nursing and allied health colleges and universities. The students get a firsthand, behind the scenes look at the multi-faceted world of health care. Nurse Camp offers a week of education, observation and participation in the daily activities of professional nurses and health care professionals. We strive for a diverse and representative class each year to increase our health care professional diversity and better serve our community. Applications are available online at www.multicare.org/nursecamp by January 1. We accept 80-100 students annually, and receive 300 or more applications yearly, so not everyone who applies is accepted. This is a highly competitive process. Applications will be accepted January 7 - March 4, 2013, and we will review only the first 225 in the order they are received. We will not accept any applications postmarked past the due date. The camp is free, and is not an over-night camp. Free scrubs, stethoscopes and educational materials are a part of the camp offerings.
Visit www.multicare.org/nursecamp2013 to apply online.