Danville Elementary students learn about health care careers

DANVILLE – Children at Danville Elementary School learned on May 14 that many different health care jobs support the work of doctors and nurses.

Knox Community Hospital and the Knox County Career Center presented a day-long health care careers expo for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. The event was patterned after the county’s first elementary expo at East Knox in October.

“Our purpose today is to educate children about the many health care positions beyond doctors and nurses,” said Carmen Yarman, a KCH employment specialist. “We have several stations set up here in the gym and in other rooms where children have hands-on learning.”

Students participated in three separate groups by grades: K, 1 and 2, followed by 3, 4 and 5. Sixth-graders visited by themselves so they could be given more detailed information.

Station topics included phlebotomy, radiology, pharmacy and physical therapy.

Danville Elementary students ask questions before they were shown how to care for life-like dolls wrapped as they would be in the hospital nursery. Credit: Larry Gibbs.

In the pharmacy room children used colored beads and actual pharmacy pill counters to simulate filling prescriptions. They learned how to take blood pressure readings, using plastic disposable stethoscopes that actually work.

Each student was given a stethoscope to take home.

At other locations children learned the procedures required to care for newborns and were shown the many functions of a modern hospital bed.

“We want to get kids thinking about possible careers in health care,” said Shelly Laslo, career connections educator at KCCC. “We had a lot of positive feedback from the program we did at East Knox Elementary last fall.

“There’s great potential to have health care career expos like this in other county elementaries.”

Hanna Ford, a KCH employment specialist, repeated an experiment she conducted at East Knox. She visited Danville a few days earlier to swab the mouths of a couple of anonymous students, plus swabs of their hands and the bottom of their shoes.

At the hospital the swabs were used to grow cultures. Encased in clear plastic, the cultures showed bacteria that was present.

“We talked with the children about the importance of washing their hands as part of good hygiene,” she said.

First-grade teacher Pearl Purdum said the health careers expo was a positive experience for students.

“This helps them learn that health care is a lot more than just doctors,” she said. “They are never too young to start thinking about careers.

“It is also a connection to the community. Some of the children have relatives who work in
health care.”