Healthcare is a vast and varied field.  From administrative roles to the coordination of surgical schedules to keep an operating room running smoothly, there is a wide array of career paths that a hospital offers.  Essentially, a hospital is a small city.

In the Fall of 2021, St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School entered into a partnership program with its neighbor, Good Samaritan Hospital, and established the We Care program.  This partnership was an ambitious project that involved a series of 12 lectures where physicians, nurses, physical therapists, hospital administrators and other professionals presented to a select student body at St. Johns.  The presentations kicked off on September 22nd, 2022.

Topics were as follows:

Students were thrilled about the lecture series and attendance was significant.  The wealth of information and insight provided by the Good Samaritan personnel provided to the Junior and Seniors at St. Johns was outstanding and students took full advantage.  The lecture series continued through mid-December.  Sr. Marie Happ, OP, the faculty coordinator of the program at SJB, was busy over the holiday break accounting for all of the student documentation necessary for the second phase of the program, the Shadowing series.  The preparation was considerable as students needed medical clearance to allow them to work side-by-side with hospital professionals.
In early February, with all of the lectures and paperwork behind them, the students walked across the street to Good Samaritan Hospital to begin their shadowing program and the staff at Good Samaritan Hospital was ready!  The plan was to divide students into 5 groups and each week the student groups rotated through a series of 5 shadowing sections. 

• Cancer Institute
• Advanced Practice Professionals
• Radiology & Cardiology
• Nursing Unit: Maternity
• Nursing Unit: 3 Main

In addition to the Shadowing sections, presentations were delivered at the hospital that were more hands-on demonstrations of medical procedures on test subjects.  These presentations included the following topics:

• Stop the Bleed - with Suffolk EMTS
• Introduction to Child Life Professions, Pediatric Play & Art Therapy
• Medical Education & Residency
• Blood Drawing and Microscopes
• Surgery Symposium

The We Care program is set to finish in the middle of May just prior to the Seniors graduating. The support and cooperation between these two catholic entities is nothing short of amazing. SJB Students are very fortunate to have this opportunity available and hopefully the program has helped shape the career paths of future medical professionals.