Ten Cherry Hill West seniors got the opportunity to be a part of the first high school internship program at Virtua this school year. The students completed the program at the end of April.
A group of 10 Cherry Hill High School West seniors didn’t just spend this school year in math and English class.
The group got to spend a couple days a week outside the classroom and inside Virtua Health System’s facilities as Virtua’s first group of high school interns.
Cherry Hill West and Virtua entered into a partnership in 2016–17 to conduct a high school internship pilot program. Ten participating Cherry Hill West students completed the eight-month internship at the end of April.
The idea for an internship program stemmed from a conversation between AnnMarie Palatnik, assistant vice president of clinical learning and academic affiliations for Virtua, and Carole Roskoph, an English teacher at Cherry Hill West. Palatnik and Roskoph are neighbors in Cherry Hill and were talking one day about ways high school students could get more real-world experience before heading to college.
“We’re always looking to do community service and expose people to a variety of health-care professions within our organizations,” Palatnik said.
Palatnik thought it would be great to start a high school internship program at Virtua. She and Roskoph pitched the idea to Cherry Hill West Principal Kwame Morton, who loved the idea and allowed the program to begin this school year.
Members of the class of 2017 were invited to apply last spring. Students had to fill out an application, write a letter of intent about why they wanted to join the program and submit three letters of recommendation. The applicants had to be in good academic standing and complete a panel interview with Morton, Palatnik and Cherry Hill West science teacher and program faculty facilitator Sondra Castellani.
“We were looking for the potential high school student that is involved in a variety of things and who is involved in their school community,” Palatnik said.
The students who were selected all had some interest in health care. Some students, such as Andrew Robertson and Pamela Ayala, had family members who worked in the industry.
“My aunt was a nurse and my sister is becoming a nurse,” Robertson said. “I really wanted to know what it was like to become a nurse and the environment they work in.”
Other students, such as Molly Burch, were interested in learning about what health care was all about.
“It was so different than anything you can do anywhere else,” Burch said.
Twice a week, the interns would spend half their day at Cherry Hill West and the other half at Virtua’s facilities. There were 10 rotations available for the students to experience. The rotations encompassed a wide range of areas, including Virtua’s joint replacement institute, progressive care unit, bereavement department, and physical and occupational therapy. The students participated in six of the 10 rotations, spending six weeks in each.
“We put them in scrubs,” Palatnik said, “They all got Virtua badges that said high school interns on it. We made them feel part of the team.”
Robertson’s favorite rotation was in the joint replacement institute.
“You really get to know (the patients) because you check on them every hour, if not every half hour,” he said. “You really get to establish a relationship. It’s really cool to see them progress from being in bed to walking around with a new hip.”
Burch said her favorite part of the experience was working in the emergency room, as she got to observe how the department operated on a daily basis.
Palatnik said each rotation brought a new experience to each student.
“In some of the rotations, they could be a flower on the wall or they could get in and get their hands dirty,” she said.
While much of the internship involved observing Virtua’s operations, the students all got hands-on experience in the hospital’s learning lab in Voorhees. The lab includes robot patients who simulate respiratory patients, stress patients and a patient in labor. Virtua uses the labs as educational tools for its staff and opened the labs to the interns.
“It was great to establish the proper roles that each person has to take on,” Robertson said.
The most important skill the students improved on was their social skills. The students learned how much hospital staff have to interact with patients on a daily basis. Many of the students felt their communication skills grew during the internship.
“Being able to go up to a person that I never met before that could be very ill and being able to talk with them was huge,” Robertson said.
“It brought out someone I didn’t know, the inner me,” Ayala said. “It helped strengthen my ability to care for other people and made me more confident.”
The internship helped Burch decide what she wanted to study in college. Burch will attend Richard Stockton University in the fall with the goal of becoming a physician’s assistant.
Robertson and Ayala are both going to school for biology, with Robertson attending Rutgers University in Camden and Ayala going to LaSalle University. Both said they are keeping their options open and could eventually pursue a career in health care as well.
Both Cherry Hill West and Virtua viewed the program as a success. The two organizations have agreed to continue the program in 2017–18 and recently interviewed next year’s seniors to choose who will participate.
Castellani feels the program provides valuable experience for students and is looking forward to being a part of the program again next year.
“It was really fun watching them grow up this year,” she said.
Palatnik said Virtua is happy to continue the program with Cherry Hill West next year and could be open to expanding it to other area high schools in the future.
“Next year this time, if different high schools approach us, we’d consider expanding the opportunities with other schools,” she said.
