CINCINNATI -- As America's Baby Boomers age there is an ever-increasing need for health care workers.
In an effort to meet that demand and to reach out to young people University Hospital in Cincinnati offers their Medical Explorers program.
"From clinical, to research, to education, it gives them a complete array of exposure that they really aren't going to get anywhere else," said Lee Ann Liska, Executive Director and Senior Vice President of University Hospital.
The students meet monthly. At their November session they learned CPR.
"What I thought would be a good thing to learn is something they can actually do," said Mary Clare Hill, M.D.
In addition to learning CPR the students, like Walnut Hills Junior Lydia Prophett, promised to teach their friends and family how to perform CPR as well.
"At first it was challenging just figuring it out but after I got the hang of it it was very simple and it's good to know that it's very easy to save a life," said Prophett.
Prophett and the other Explorers each received a white lab coat to wear while they participate.
"It puts a mental model in their head of being a health care professional," explained Hill.
Currently in the United States there exists a nurshing shortage and a projected shortage of physicians.
Hill suggests that these high school students will soon become the care-givers of the Baby Boomers.
"We have a lot of people going to be older rather than younger and we're going to need health care so we'll need nurses, radiologists, doctors, pharmacists respitory therapists. We'll need people to take care of us," said Hill.
