DAYTON — Ohio is currently facing a 15% nursing shortage, translating to between 10,000 and 14,000 open jobs in the state. To help combat this, nearly 50 high school students are participating in a summer program at Miami Valley Hospital, gaining hands-on experience in the medical field.
The initiative aims to provide authentic training to guide the next generation of nurses into the profession.
Data from Ohio University confirms the severity of the nursing shortage.
The summer program, now in its fourth year, is a collaborative effort between Wright State University and Premier Health, designed to give participants a real-world perspective on daily nursing requirements.
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The program exposes high school students to various aspects of nursing through real-world scenarios, including handling incoming patients requiring urgent care and working with social work experts to ease patients.
The training provides insights into challenges future nurses will face.
Elizabeth Hutchinson, a rising junior at Troy High School, is one of the students participating in the program.
Hutchinson shared her long-standing aspiration to become a nurse, inspired by her family members in the profession. “I’ve been wanting to do nursing since I was, like, about 3 years old,” Hutchinson said. “My family members, they’re all nurses and stuff and I just. I’ve watched them over the years and it just. I’ve been wanting to do it since I was little.”
Hutchinson views the program as an opportunity to explore career paths within health care. “Maybe I’ll change my mind and see what other job opportunities I’d want to do,” she said. “So, yeah, I just am exploring and getting more experience.”
The practical training includes critical skills, such as those detailed by a Flight Nurse during a demonstration. “And you got to check their pulses, and you got to do all the things they do normally to live. You got to check those things,” the Flight Nurse said.
Hutchinson expressed gratitude for the guidance she has received from the medical professionals. “A lot of them have been helping me out, like answering my questions, even dumb questions,” Hutchinson said.
“But they are very helpful and very sweet, and they’re just so supportive. So I’m grateful for them.”
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