HIGH POINT, N.C., July 21, 2016 – It was only milk sugar, but as Matthew Rodriguez-Bahena measured and poured it into a purple and white capsule, it was also a chance to consider what a career in health care might be like.
Bahena was one of 35 children ranging from kindergarten to seventh grade who toured High Point University’s health education facilities on Wednesday. The children are part of a Washington Street Enrichment Camp that’s kept them busy with educational and health and wellness activities throughout the summer.
Inside HPU labs, they focused on science and what it might be like to someday become a physician assistant, physical therapist or pharmacist.
“I’ve learned that pharmacists have a lot purposes,” Bahena said inside the university’s Pharmacy Skills Lab, where professors led them through a hands-on exercise in measuring powders that looked like prescriptions. “They help people out so can they take their medicine and get better.”
The children met Stan, a simulated mannequin, inside the Department of Physician Assistant Studies. They quickly learned that he mimics humans in a lot of ways, including the ability to communicate, cry, sweat and bleed.
“We use Stan to teach our students how to be good to patients and love and take good care of them,” Johnson said as he handed a stethoscope to the children so they could hear Stan’s simulated heartbeat. “We can teach them so much with Stan.”
And there were plenty of opportunities to bounce up and down on force plates that analyze the way feet hit the ground inside the Human Biomechanics and Physiology Lab.
“All of this helps people learn how your body works and about difficult diseases so they won’t hurt people anymore,” Bahena said.