Tacoma, Fife students learn good medicine

Posted by Jill Russell on July 20, 2009 at 3:49 pm

By Jill Russell

Students watch a mock surgery preformed by a DaVinci Surgery Robot at St. Joseph Hospital in Tacoma.

About 75 Fife and Tacoma students entering ninth grade this fall are donning scrubs and rubber gloves this summer. They are members of the Franciscian Healthcare Network's Health Adventures program, a summer medical camp held throughout the South Sound. The goal of the camps is to expose kids, at an early age, to the healthcare industy and hopefully spark interest in the field as a possible future career, explained Gale Robinette, media relations manager for Tacoma's St. Jospeh Hospital.

"The program is celebrating its 10 year, we started in 2000," said Robinette. "Next year, we plan to expand the program to St. Anthony's in Gig Harbor."

Students at St. Joe's worked with trained Registered Nurses, learned proper cleansing and dressing techniques, and had their gag reflexes tested by dissecting various animal organs. This was Tacoma Student, Jacy Torres' favorite part.

"I really like the pathology lesson and loved the body parts one too," said Jacy.

"It just smelled really bad," Fellow student, Aaliya Lewis piped in.

Robinette said the students are also given an opprotunity to practice "mock surgery" with a foam pad and a $1.5 million DaVinci Sergical Robot.

"St. Joe's was one of the first hospitals Western Washington to preform robotic heart surgeries with this machine," said Robinette. "It allows doctors to preform the most minimially invasive procedures. These kids are from the computer age, so they look at the robot and know they can do it."