Advertisement “I have never had three hours go by so fast,” the 16-year-old Westby High School student said. “It was amazing. I loved it.”
Strangstalien is one of 10 area high school students who learned the ins and outs of nursing this summer at Franciscan Skemp Medical Center through the Summer Shadowing Program in Nursing.
The teens, entering their junior year at Onalaska, West Salem, La Crescent, Holmen, Lewiston-Altura, La Crescent, Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau, Westby, Blair-Taylor and Aquinas high schools, met weekly to hear guest speakers over lunch and job-shadow nurses in departments throughout the hospital.
The program has been offered annually since 2004 to help address the shortage of nurses and give students an in-depth job shadow experience, said Ruth Morgan, assistant director of volunteer services.
Strangstalien enrolled in the program with the encouragement of a school counselor.
She said she has been interested in the medical field since age 13.
As she prepared to go to the newborn intensive care unit, her last shadow of the nine-week program, Strangstalien said, “This has never been a dream of mine, but nurses are amazing.”
Mark Steingraeber knows he is interested in the medical field when he graduates from Aquinas High School.
And, until recently, he thought he wanted to be a doctor.
“I wasn’t completely sure if I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse, but now I’m more into nursing than being a doctor,” said Steingraeber, 15. “A doctor has more schooling involved and nurses seem to have better relationships with patients.”
During his shadows, Steingraeber said, he learned a lot about being a nurse anesthesiologist and now is interested in pursuing that field.
“They put people to sleep and have to open their mouths and put in tubes,” he said. “It was really interesting.”
Autumn Grooms can be reached at (608) 791-8424 or agrooms@lacrossetribune.com.
