Masters of physical therapy student Kaley Strachan took some time off from her placement in Prince George this week to spread the message about careers in healthcare to elementary and high school students across the central interior.
Strachan was among a group of students who travelled from Burns Lake to Fort St. James as part of the annual Healthcare Travelling Roadshow. Students as young as kindergarten and as old as Grade 12 heard from people in medical school as well as those studying to become nurses, physical therapists occupational therapists, medical lab technicians and medical radiography technicians.
"We had stations for them to rotate through and try out the equipment or try little quizzes and guessing games just to get them interested in what potentially is out there for them," Strachan said. "Hopefully they would come back and practice in those communities."
Among the interactive components were crutches and splints, examples of X-rays, blood pressure monitors and models of organs.
Strachan said she got a few queries about how the different splints were used and encouraged the students to try to think through their questions themselves.
"A lot of the questions they asked, we wanted them to think about it more than just give them an answer," she said.
In most of the communities along the route the presentations were broken down into two groups, one for Grades 5 to 7 and another for Grades 8 to 12. At some of the smaller schools younger students were invited to participate.
"It seemed like the younger kids were more excited about it and the older kids were tentative but still curious to try things," Strachan said. "The older kids are actually thinking about university now and what courses they need to take so we catered our presentation to give them some guidance."
Strachan, who hails from Port Alberni, has two weeks remaining in her placement in Prince George.
