Hands-on health care: high school students discover career paths
More than 230 students from 47 high schools across Hamilton, southwestern Ontario and beyond visited Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) on May 29 to explore a wide range of careers in health care.
Discovery Days in Health Sciences are one-day symposiums held across Canada to give high school students in Grades 10 to 12 opportunities to explore health-care careers. The Hamilton symposium was co-hosted by HHS, McMaster University and the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, a London-based organization that honors excellence in health sciences and medicine, and brings symposium opportunities to Canadian communities.
“Our Discovery Days event gave students opportunities to learn more about fields they’re interested in, as well as professions they may not have known about or considered before this event.” — Katie Porter, HHS executive director of research strategy and operations
The students chose from 14 workshops led by teams from HHS and McMaster. Workshop leaders included HHS doctors, researchers, residents and staff, as well as medical students and physician assistant students.
Inspiring future health-care professionals
“High school students don’t often get the chance to learn from professionals and university students who are working in fields they’re interested in pursuing,” says Katie Porter, executive director of research strategy and operations at HHS. “Our Discovery Days event gave students opportunities to learn more about fields they’re interested in, as well as professions they may not have known about or considered before this event.”
Porter and Shannon Digby, the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame’s executive director, opened the day with a welcome, followed by keynote speaker Dr. Tharsini Sivananthajothy, a second-year emergency medicine resident physician.
A workshop on sepsis included poster making, and an opportunity to meet a four-time sepsis survivor.
Event highlights included a sepsis workshop, where students heard from Barbara Dolanjski, a four-time sepsis survivor who received lifesaving treatment at HHS and went on to train as a patient researcher. She now works on research projects with Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud, an HHS critical care doctor and sepsis expert who is the scientific director for Sepsis Canada.
Students taking part in an anesthesia workshop got to try placing a breathing tube into a windpipe of a mannequin, and during an orthopedic and surgery casting workshop, students had an opportunity to try casting an arm or leg to keep a broken bone in place. For the suturing workshop, students were taught different techniques and tools used to stitch skin back together.
More than 97 per cent of students who participate in Discovery Days say it helped confirm their plans to pursue a career in the health sciences
Medical students led a session where participants worked through a case including diagnosis and treatment. Afterwards, the visiting students got to ask presenters about their educational path and what a typical day is like for them. Physician Assistant students shared more about their career path, with a workshop that gave the visiting students an opportunity to take vital signs, interpret test results and conduct mock patient interviews.
McMaster University physician assistant students led a workshop sharing more about this program, and the profession.
An HHS occupational therapist helped lead a session on occupational therapy as a career, which included taking part in short skill-related activities for prizes. Other workshops included: Exploring the wonders of the human anatomy; language and the brain; understanding dementia; molecules and a wet lab workshop; developing health-care technologies from concept to real world solutions; and cannabis research.
The day wrapped up with a panel discussion that included Deena Al-Sammak, an integrated biomedical engineering and health sciences student at McMaster who co-founded Power of Play. Through interviews with occupational therapists and other health-care professionals at HHS McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH), Al-Sammak and co-founder Rooaa Shanshal developed a kid-friendly tool to measure grip strength in children, and received a 2024 DRIVE Spark funding grant from HHS to advance this project.
Also on the panel were Lindsay Picard, an HHS nurse practitioner, Dr. Jordan Edwards, an HHS epidemiology and health sciences research associate; HHS physiotherapist Vince Pacifici; and McMaster student Jashandeep Choong, a former co-op intern with the HHS research development and innovation team who’s pursing an MBA in health management.
“More than 97 per cent of students who participate in (Discovery Days) tell us it helped confirm their plans to pursue a career in the health sciences, often opening their eyes to new areas of interest they hadn’t considered before,” says Digby, adding, “Improving human health in Canada and around the world is essential, and inspiring young people to explore careers where they can contribute to this goal is equally inspiring and impactful.”
