UNMCing the medical field
SC Pathway kids take a trip to UNMC
Last Wednesday 13 juniors and seniors from Sandy Creek’s health pathway traveled to the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for a field trip and job shadowing experience. While on campus, students took part in four different labs and a tour of the biocontainment unit.
“I think that the school gave us a great opportunity in taking us up to Omaha to see if we really are interested in working in the medical field,” said senior Mckensi Uecker.
The students left school at 7:20 to load the vansa and start their day. Once in Omaha, the students went into the Pharmaceutical building to participate in experiments that gave students real-world lab experience. Students rotated through four labs that required students to wear their personal protective equipment (PPE), a gown and gloves.
The lab practice that the students went through included four mini stations where students tested to see if Lucy, the patient the they were using as a scenario case, had viruses or diseases. The four stations that the students went to taught them how to perform a urine dipstick test, a blood smear, use a centrifuge machine and take the bacterial spores off of a petri dish and look at them to see what type of bacteria it is.
“Being able to go up there and see what people in labs really do was a great experience that will be helpful to us in our future health care,” said senior Gabe Muñoz.
After the students completed the labs, they discarded their PPE and washed their hands so they could leave the room and head to lunch. After lunch, it was up the the seventh floor to the biocontainment unit to see where patients with ebola stay.
Once on the seventh floor, a badge was needed to get into the “prep room,” where the nurses went to change out of everything they were wearing and put their PPE on before ever entering the unit. After the nurses were changed and covered in their gear, they got to enter the unit. Inside it looked like just another floor at any other hospital, but the double doors that were put in between the hallway where the rooms where and the nurse’s station made it clear that all precautions were being taken. The nurse that was showing the students around was actually working on the night the first patient with ebola came to Omaha.
“It was really fun going to the biocontainment unit, and it made me really nervous being in such an intense environment. The experience was safe but at the same time it was crazy to think of what has happened in that unit,” said senior Addison Kuta.