News
Silver Cross Hospital Supports Lincoln-Way Student Intern Program
New Lenox, IL (May 3, 2012) — Three mornings a week for 4 weeks, 13 Lincoln-Way East High School students set aside their text books and came to Silver Cross Hospital for real-life lessons. The free program offers a valuable experience and great opportunity for seniors enrolled in human anatomy and physiology class allowing them real insight into medical careers.
Brian Murray, Paramedic, and Seth Nissen, EMT-B, with the Silver Cross Free-Standing Emergency Care Center in Homer Glen pose with Steven Pieczynski and Tyler Lucas, student interns from Lincoln-Way East High School.
During the fall semester the students learned from college textbooks in a classroom. In the spring semester, they took part in a real healthcare setting. Under the supervision of their classroom instructor and hospital managers, the students rotated through 14 areas including the Post Acute Care Unit (PACU), a nursing unit, diagnostic imaging, endoscopy, laboratory, Infusion Center, Cardiac Cath Lab, The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at Silver Cross, and the Silver Cross Free-Standing Emergency Care Center in Homer Glen.
One of the highlights of this year’s internship was when the students took a field trip to the Silver Cross Free-Standing Emergency Care Center located at 143rd St. and Bell Rd. in Homer Glen. The Emergency Care Center is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and staffed by Silver Cross Hospital’s board certified emergency medicine physicians and nurses. Paramedics are onsite 24/7 to immediately transfer patients by ambulance to the Silver Cross Hospital if they need to be admitted to the hospital.
During their time at the Free-Standing Emergency Care Center, students watched as paramedics conducted an EKG on each other to demonstrate how this test is performed and then printed out the results for students to analyze. Afterwards, Habib Abbasi, M.D., emergency medicine physician with EM Strategies at Silver Cross Hospital, gave a heart and EKG in-service to the students. Dr. Abbasi also gave advice to the students on how to be a compassionate physician. He said it is important for a physician to sincerely listen to their patients to really understand their problems, so you can treat them properly. Then Margaret Hir, MRI Technologist, gave a thorough imaging and x-ray in-service where she printed out MRI images of various sections of the body and had students guess which body part was displayed on the film.
Because the students desire some sort of healthcare career but may not fully understand how diverse the medical field really is, they spend time in each department.
“This program provides a very unique opportunity for our students to obtain vocational experience and knowledge in the medical field, whereby they are provided the tools to make more educated decisions regarding their future career paths at an early age,” said Scott Fletcher, Dean of Students and teacher for the Human Anatomy & Physiology class at Lincoln-East High School. “It also gives students applying to college a competitive edge.”
In order to be considered for the Anatomy Physiology Medical class, students must undergo a rigorous selection process weighing their qualifications to other candidates. Students must meet criteria including a combination of excellent grades, interest in the healthcare field as a career, complete an application process, acquire teacher recommendations, exhibit a discipline for a dedicated work ethic and participate in an interview process.
“This internship has been the most interesting thing I’ve ever done and it has taught me so much, like how to be even more responsible,” said Lincoln-Way East senior Maggie Bisaga, who will be attending Elmhurst College in the fall to study nursing. “From my internship at Silver Cross Hospital, I now know that I want to be a nurse that can do infusions.” BiSaga also has volunteered for the past two years at Silver Cross greeting and escorting patients and their families.
For 12 years, the program has provided students with a window to their future. Many former interns have even come back after graduation to work at Silver Cross in many areas including admitting, respiratory therapy, nutrition services and the emergency department.
About Silver Cross Hospital
Silver Cross Hospital is a not-for-profit health care provider serving Will County and southwest suburban communities since 1895. Silver Cross has been recognized as a Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals National Award winner for seven consecutive years and as one of America’s Most Customer Friendly Hospitals by the American Alliance of Healthcare Providers. With more than 3,000 employees, physicians and volunteers, Silver Cross operates a 289-bed acute care hospital and 10 satellite facilities providing outpatient services and physician offices and recently opened a state-of-the-artreplacement hospital on February 26, 2012 at I-355 and Route 6 in New Lenox. To learn more about Silver Cross Hospital or a referral to a physician on staff, visit www.silvercross.org or call 1-888-660-HEAL (4325).
