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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare occupations are projected to add more jobs in the next decade than any other industry. Not surprisingly, this projected growth is due mainly to our aging population. The rising demand for healthcare workers is one of the reasons John Muir Hospital launched a partnership more than two decades ago with 14 area high schools to build a student volunteer program that gave high school students first-hand experience working in a hospital.
According to Katie Grieb, Berean High School’s College and Career Counselor, the program is highly competitive. “We always have a wait list,” says Grieb. “And we never have to promote the program; students know about it from word of mouth.”
Meeting the requirements to qualify for the program is a high bar. Students must meet a minimum GPA, have an interest in pursuing a career in healthcare, and be ready to commit to a weekly volunteer shift at the hospital year-round until they graduate. And even then, Berean has only three or four new spots open for students to participate each year.
Kaitlyn Kimura and Ellie DeRevere, both juniors at Berean, applied for the program as freshmen in 2019 before COVID changed the way we all live and work. But they were not able to participate in the program until the fall of 2021. For obvious reasons, John Muir Hospital was forced to temporarily reduce student involvement during the worst stages of the pandemic. Now, after several months volunteering with dozens of other students from around the area, Kimura and DeRevere both feel more resolved than ever to join the healthcare community when they start their careers.
“I really love helping people,” says DeRevere. She has her mind set on studying anesthesia and becoming a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Through the student volunteer program, she gets to see what daily life is like at a hospital. This is part of the stated goals of the program according to the hospital’s Student Volunteer Program Manager, Stacy Appel.
“Volunteering at the hospital makes it real for the students,” Appel says. "They see things, hear things, and sometimes smell things that give them a very real sense of what the profession is like.”
Appel says that they want to encourage and inspire the next generation of medical professionals at John Muir. Sometimes students find out that a career in healthcare is not for them. That’s a win too, says Appel.
The hospital staff place a high value on the work that the student volunteers do at John Muir. Students offer a special kind of life and vitality to the hospital environment that is valuable to staff and patients alike. After the COVID restrictions on volunteers were lifted, the hospital staff were excited to see the students expand their services.
Kimura says that working at the hospital has given her more confidence in pursuing a career in medicine. She is interested in becoming an Ophthalmologist. She has always had poor eyesight and she is eager to help others with vision problems. Kimura would like to become a surgeon specializing in eye surgery.
Kimura loves the one on one time that she gets with patients. Student volunteers often help with patient discharges, so Kimura is frequently the last person a patient sees before leaving the hospital. It’s a key point in the patient’s experience at the hospital. The experience has helped her grow more confident in pointing her career toward healthcare.
“Before [volunteering] I was scared,” says Kimura. “I thought that maybe I should be a pharmacist. But this experience with patients has made me want to pursue surgery even more.”
Both Berean students agree that the skills they’ve learned in the classroom have transferred to their work at the hospital. Berean has given them excellent tools in writing, communicating, leadership, and just being people with integrity.
DeRevere says that her responsibilities have increased since she started in the fall. She is now a student supervisor. She helps run the student volunteer lounge on her shifts at John Muir Hospital. She is tasked with making sure student volunteers comply with COVID protocols, and she leads the effort to foster a positive environment for volunteers.
The hospital views these students as an integral part of the patient care team. Stacy Appel says that one of the things she loves about her job is walking through the halls of the hospital and seeing nurses, doctors, or other staff who started out as part of the volunteer program. She is encouraged by the qualities she sees in the students who come from Berean Christian High School.
“They’re all really amazing kids,” says Appel. “Our world is going to be in great shape with young people like them in charge of our future.”
If you are a current or future student at Berean Christian High School and you would like to learn more about the John Muir Volunteer Program and other volunteer opportunities, contact Ms. Katie Grieb at the school.