An early taste for giving care

Student volunteers learn health care basics - and can earn service hours for college - in a program at Pasco Regional Medical Center.

By IRENA MILASINOVIC, Times Staff Writer
Published August 1, 2007

Kayla Miller, 15, delivers water to Jennifer Hanbury, 17, as Jennifer's father watches Monday at the Pasco Regional Medical Center. Kayla is one of 12 volunteers in a summer program that lets high school students explore options in medical careers.
	[Mike Pease | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Mike Pease | Times] Kayla Miller, right, checks paperwork at a nurses' station as Angela Johnston, a certified nurse assistant, answers the phone. Miller says, "I always wanted to be a nurse or a doctor."

The work that Kayla Miller is doing this summer is helping her get closer to her dream job.

At 15, Kayla spends her summer afternoons with nurses and doctors - both careers she's considering.

At 15, she's learning how IV pumps work and what proper bedside manner means.

At 15, she already knows how good it feels to see patients leave the hospital healthy and thankful.

"I always wanted to be a nurse or a doctor," she said. "I loved helping people and this seemed as a perfect opportunity."

Along with a dozen other high school students, she is part of a volunteer program offered through Pasco Regional Medical Center. Miller, Kayla Brathle and Abby Fagan, who all attend Pasco High, chose a summer job that pays in experience instead of cash.

The program, designed to give people the opportunity to explore careers in health care while providing service to the hospital and its patients, started in the early 1990s. This year, it added a new dimension of seeking student volunteers with an interest in the medical field.

Students can earn service hours they need for college and scholarship applications. By the end of the summer, the 12 students will have completed more than 710 hours of community service at the hospital.

When Kayla Miller started volunteering, she planned to complete the hours required for her Bright Future Scholarship, but soon after, she became so involved that she lost track of how much she was actually working. As one of the junior volunteers, she works on the recovery floor, helping doctors and nurses.

"Whatever nurses tell me to do, I do it," Kayla said.

The rest of the volunteers are spread throughout the 120-bed care facility working in various departments such as registration, accounting, the laboratory, cafeteria, medical records and the emergency room.

They get to see what really goes on in a hospital, said Annette Evans, volunteer coordinator at Pasco Regional.

Kayla Brathle and Abby Fagan spend their mornings filing paperwork, making copies and storing medical records.

At 17, Kayla Brathle says she's learned responsibility, people skills and better organizational tactics. She volunteers three days a week, four hours a day.

The summer program is open to students ages 14 to 18 with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Each student goes through a four-hour orientation, which includes training on hospital policy, procedures, health insurance and accountability act.

The feedback has been positive. The students have been eager to come and learn, Evans said.

"They show up 10 to 15 minutes earlier than their scheduled time," she said.

Early shifts begin at 8 a.m. Evans, who has been with Pasco Regional since April, anticipates that the program will reach its capacity of 20 students next year.

Kayla Miller says her summer at the hospital has given her a much clearer picture of her future. She wants to be a registered nurse.

And she would love to come back and work for the hospital where she spent her summer afternoons.

[Last modified July 31, 2007, 22:58:32]