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474 Northeast Ohio High School Students Shadow Local Healthcare Professionals

In 2002, The Center for Health Affairs workforce initiative, NEONI, launched a Healthcare Career Shadowing Program for high school students to learn first-hand about local healthcare career opportunities and job skills by spending one day in a real-life healthcare workplace environment. Since its inception, more than 5,000 high school students have seized the opportunity to have this experience. The 2011-2012 Shadowing Program, which ended in May, was the most successful academic year yet, with 474 Northeast Ohio high school juniors and seniors from nine counties taking part.

Every year the NEONI Healthcare Career Shadowing Program generates positive feedback from both the students who participate and the volunteer healthcare professionals they shadow.

“The students are always so friendly and courteous to us. It's a pleasure to help them find the right career for their future and the future of healthcare,” said Judy L. Pruchnicki-Heikkinen, a Shadowing Hospital Coordinator at Mercy Regional Medical Center.

Based on a NEONI survey of 141 students who participated in shadowing, 91 percent of students agreed the experience was helpful in increasing their knowledge of a chosen healthcare profession in the hospital setting, 87 percent agreed the experience was helpful in making a career decision and 94 percent would recommend the experience to others who are interested in a healthcare profession.

When asked for feedback in this anonymous survey, student participants expressed gratitude for their experiences, saying “I really enjoyed shadowing my nurse. She was enthusiastic about her work and allowed me to be confident in my choice of career,” and “I loved my experience. It helped me to see a regular day in the burn unit and how much the job matters to people.”

Students from the following nine counties spent a day at one of 20 area participating hospitals interacting with professional healthcare practitioners. Visit the NEONI Facebook page to view a photo album of this year’s Shadowing participants in action.

• Cuyahoga (256 students)
• Lorain (78 students)
• Mahoning (8 students)
• Medina (2 students)
• Portage (20 students)
• Stark (25 students)
• Summit (63 students)
• Trumbull (16 students)
• Wayne (6 students)

NEONI's Healthcare Career Shadowing Program allows juniors and seniors to job shadow in the fields of nursing, radiology, laboratory technology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, pharmacy and respiratory therapy. The program is offered at no charge to both students and schools.

Next year’s Shadowing Program is already underway and NEONI encourages high school guidance counselors to visit www.NEONI.org to learn how they can help their high school’s juniors and seniors to participate in this program.