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SPC Event Puts High Schoolers in Touch with Health Careers Crucial for Area
MARLENA HARTZ
AVALANCHE-JOURNAL
Story last updated at 3:04 a.m. Friday, October 5, 2007 The patients were made of plastic. But the people in scrubs were intent. Inside one room, a woman pulled back a flap of fake skin using metal forceps, as another peered at the labyrinth of organs inside the mannequin. Health professionals in training at South Plains College spent Thursday morning simulating surgery and other medical procedures for a group they may one day work beside - more than 100 area high school students who have an interest in their field.  | | Jim Watkins / Staff | South Plains College paramedic student Matthew Miller shows Estacado High student Oscar Meza how to clear an air way during SPC's Allied Health Day at the Reese Center campus. |
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The three-hour, hands-on event was the first ever South Plains College Allied Health Day at the Reese Technology Center. College officials said they hope to stage the event annually to introduce students to lucrative careers - in nursing, radiology, emergency medical services and other areas - that are crucial and in demand in the area. "I got to try a lot of new things," Lubbock-Cooper High's Sarah Roberts, 17, said of the day. Roberts was strapped onto a stretcher and rolled into an ambulance Thursday. She also administered a shot and stitched a wound on a dummy. "I definitely know I want to be a neo-natal nurse," a confident Roberts said. Around noon, students crowded, shoulder to shoulder, by SPC student Austin Griggs. The 20-year-old is studying to get a certificate in emergency medical services. He and his audience Thursday were separated, in age, by a few years. SPC allied health by the numbers • 9: Number of health occupation programs at SPC. • 19: Number of health-related degrees and certificates offered at SPC. • 983: Number of allied health workers and nurses SPC has trained in the last three years. • 80: Approximate percentage of allied health graduates from SPC who have stayed in the South Plains region in the last three years. • 83: National percentage of first responders - police officers, EMS officials, firefighters - trained at community colleges. Source: South Plains College President Kelvin Sharp |
"It's not fake anymore," Griggs told the high school students. "People get shot all the time. People get stabbed all the time. You don't just sit in class and read books (in the EMS program)." South Plains College, with campuses in Levelland, Plainview, at the Reese center and on 34th Street in Lubbock, offers nine health occupation programs and 19 health-related degrees and certificates, its president, Kelvin Sharp, said. The college plays a crucial role in keeping South Plains hospitals and health care centers staffed, Sharp said. In the past three years, the college has trained 983 allied health workers and nurses, he said. About 80 percent of those graduates have stayed in the South Plains region, he said. "These students are a vital part of Lubbock," he said. Nationally, about 83 percent of all first responders - police officers, EMS officials, firefighters - are trained at community colleges. "Please don't take lightly the calling God has given you," Lubbock Mayor David Miller told prospective and current South Plains College students. The mayor presented a proclamation Thursday declaring Oct. 4 South Plains College Allied Health Day. "You are desperately needed in the health care field. For all I know," he said, "one of you is going to pick me up one day. One of you is going to give me my breathing treatments." To comment on this story:
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766-8753
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766-8706 This story first appeared at 4:33 p.m. Friday.
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