45 local students explore health careers in UNM summer program
Forty-five Sandoval County students finished two weeks of CPR, hip-replacement practice and hospital rotations at UNM's Rio Rancho health careers academy.
Forty-five high school students from three local school districts earned completion certificates on June 18 after two weeks of hands-on medical training at the University of New Mexico Health Careers Academy in Rio Rancho.
The UNM Health Sciences program is in its sixth year, serves rising high school juniors and seniors and is offered in seven regions of New Mexico. In Rio Rancho, the academy ran Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. from June 8 to June 18, and the program was open to Sandoval County residents who were current sophomores or juniors in high school, interested in a health career and carrying at least a 2.5 GPA. A stipend is offered when students complete the program.
Laura Burton, director of UNM Health Sciences Rio Rancho, helped create the academy after discussions with then-Rio Rancho Public Schools Superintendent Sue Cleveland. The program grew into a local committee effort to give students a clearer view of the range of careers inside health care, from physical therapy and emergency medicine to nursing and other clinical work.
Students used synthetic bones in a hip replacement exercise, became CPR-certified and heard from multiple health professionals. They also spent part of the two-week program at Sandoval Regional Medical Center, where they saw the pace of a working hospital and the teamwork required in patient care.
UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center is a 65-bed hospital with more than 650 health care professionals and 12 imaging suites. It serves Sandoval County, Native American pueblos, tribal lands and communities in northwest New Mexico and Arizona. It is a Level III trauma center, while UNM Hospital in Albuquerque remains the state’s only Level I trauma center.
Total joint replacements are performed at Sandoval Regional Medical Center, and the nearby UNM Center of Excellence for Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation is a 50,000-square-foot teaching hospital with a research laboratory, X-rays, patient exam rooms, two biosafety level 2 workstations, a cadaver lab and a HydroWorx pool for rehabilitation.
Kamry Weeks of The ASK Academy in Rio Rancho and Alxxavyr Hasdale of Cuba High School were interested in orthopedic surgery but valued the chance to explore other paths as well.
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