The American Health Association predicts there will be a shortage of about 100,000 critical health care workers by 2028. Therefore, the University of Indianapolis offers medical summer youth programs to combat that.
The university offers three different summer camps for high school students: Health Careers Enrichment, Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Camp, and Young Achievers Academy. These programs aim to educate and allow students to explore careers in the medical field through panel discussions, lab simulations and games, according to UIndy.
The youth programs are now open for registration, according to UIndy’s website. Although the camps are designed to educate high school students, the Greyhound community is heavily involved. Senior Project Director Monique Kerr said UIndy students from the PT/OT programs participate with the high school students in games at the PT/OT camp. Similarly, in the Health Careers Enrichment camp, there will be professors and students from programs such as nursing, OT/PT, and both art and music therapy, there to represent and inform attendees about UIndy’s medical programs.
“A lot of students only know about doctors, dentists or somewhere they have gone to seek care,” Kerr said. “A lot of them don’t know there are over 250 different careers that you can go into within health care. There are careers for everyone at every level, and it is important to give those students this information. Then they can seek out a position that could set them up for a career they could enjoy as an adult.”
The Health Careers Enrichment camp focuses on educating students on a variety of health care professions. Kerr mentioned several careers that high school students tend to be unaware of, such as respiratory therapists, radiology technicians and anesthesiology assistants. Similarly, the Young Achievers Academy explores health care professions while also preparing students for the college application process and setting expectations for a medical career path. However, for students interested in rehabilitation health care, the PT/OT camp is more specific to rehabilitation professions.
UIndy’s camps give students the opportunity to learn about less popular health care careers and the expectations of medical programs, which is especially beneficial due to recent employment shortages in the health care workforce.
“We teach them about the shortages,” Kerr said. “We teach them the growth rates of these careers and what they are going to look like in the next five to 10 years. They are going to be the careers that will most need people to fill them. [The students] are the generation we need to fill the careers, and so we need to give them the tools to be able to go to school, excel in it and then get into the programs to be able to become these people.”
Project Manager Heather Blankenbaker said that the UIndy community is involved in the summer programs, along with community partners and outside healthcare professionals. She also discussed how these programs help high schoolers learn about the university.
“It gives UIndy more visibility,” Blankenbaker said. “We always ask in our post survey, ‘Would you be interested in attending UIndy?’ There are a number of students who say ‘yes’ because they have had such a good experience on campus, seeing the buildings and talking with UIndy students.”
These camps run in June and July, with the PT/OT camp running from June 1-5, the Health Careers Enrichment camp running from June 22-26 and the Young Achievers Academy running from June 15-July 2. You can register or apply at UIndy.edu.
