Experience that works for students' futures

Nodaway Valley family and consumer sciences teacher Karen Schulteis says that the earlier she can have a student learn what they would like to do for a career one day, the better. One class she has taught for the last seven years plays a key role in that process for each student that enrolls.

Recently, the first semester of classes ended for students, and three students enrolled in Schulteis' Work Experience class were able to gain valuable experience at hospitals in Winterset and Greenfield. Both are affiliates of MercyOne.

Hana Brown, Taylor Day and Liv Laughery began the semester working at Madison County Health System, because Adair County Health System was still in a transitional phase.

“Madison County was really gracious to take all three of our girls knowing that once our hospital opened, the girls would go here,” Schulteis said. That happened later in the semester.

Brown and Laughery are each interested in going into radiology, in some form. They were able to work alongside the radiology staff at the two hospitals and learn from them.

“I thought it would be a good idea to see how the workplace runs,” Laughery said.

Laughery said senography, which is in the area of ultrasounds, interests her, while Brown was interested in learning about in mammograms.

Laughery and Brown said working in both hospitals were good learning experiences.

“I liked when we would do CT scans,” Brown said. “On one, someone had a port, which [required] a different process.”

Day worked on the med surg floor at the hospitals. Her experience was extremely valuable in a different sense because she learned she would like to go into cosmetology instead of the medical field.

“Initially I was in [Southwestern Community College] classes to be a CNA and then I was doing Work Experience at the hospital. That’s the field I thought I wanted to go into. After taking my first semester of classes and seeing how it all works, I didn’t know if I could get through all those classes,” Day said. “[Working at the hospital] was a really cool experience and I had a lot o fun.”

Schulteis explained these students represent what she calls two very good outcomes from Work Experience.

“There’s two really good results. One is that they confirm that yes, they love it as much as they thought they would. The other one is when they say this isn’t what I want to do,” Schulteis said. “I would much rather they find that out when they’re in high school than leave here, study for two, three or four years and then decide they don’t want to do it. I would rather have kids say I thought I want to do this but now I don’t know rather than [later on] figuring out this is awful. Finding out you don’t want to do it is just as good of a result as finding out you do want to do it.”

Community businesses who partner with the school for Work Experience represent a wide array of fields, from education to the medical field, agriculture and manufacturing.

“The hospital reopening [and having our kids there] lets our kids see the hospital from a different side,” Schulteis said. “I think it’s a great recruiting tool for our hospital as well because they have hired some of the students who worked through Work Experience there.”

Adair County Health System officials said the feeling is very mutual.

“We love partnering with Nodaway Valley Schools to provide students with work experience opportunities here at ACHS. It’s incredibly rewarding to see young minds gain insight into the healthcare field, and we’re proud to play a part in inspiring the next generation of professionals,” said Julie Douglas, Chief Human Resources Officer at ACHS. “We hope Taylor, Hana and Liv found this experience rewarding and gained valuable insight.”