By Joie N. Marhefka
I recently attended a STEM program that was hosted by a local hospital. A group of students visited monthly to hear speakers and participate in STEM-focused programming. The focus of this month’s session was engineering. I had the opportunity to present on clinical engineering/healthcare technology management (HTM). The participants were a group of seventh graders, who were quite attentive and asked many good questions. In addition to my presentation and one given by another engineer, the students participated in a number of hands-on engineering related activities.
The kids clearly enjoyed the day’s events, and I am hopeful that they took some new knowledge home with them. One thing that I hope the kids learned is that HTM is an exciting career field that offers many benefits and opportunities. I am confident that I am not alone in my belief that one of the challenges in filling positions in the HTM field is that so many people have no idea that this field even exists. Therefore, I feel that it is important to talk with groups of students and others about opportunities in HTM and do so any chance I get. Most of the time, the presentations that I give and conversations that I have focus on high school students, but talking with younger students offers the opportunity to plant a seed in their heads before they start thinking about college and making real plans for careers.
In addition to participating in programs like I recently did, I often go to high schools to speak about the field and careers. We also host open house type events at Penn State New Kensington, where we provide information about our biomedical engineering technology major to high school students and to adults considering career changes. This fall, we also had groups of students from several high schools visit our campus, tour our labs and talk with current students and faculty about our program and the opportunities it offers. I also know that several local hospitals have been having high school students visit for group tours or to spend a few hours shadowing. I believe that these types of experiences are essential in recruiting new students and eventually new employees to fill vacancies in HTM. Therefore, I plan to continue holding events for high school students and hope that others do too.
However, I also see great value in talking with younger kids about HTM and the opportunities that it presents. While it will, of course, be a while until they can have real impact on the industry, it is never too early to expose them to new ideas for their future careers. I often hear young kids say they want to be a doctor or nurse or teacher when they grow up. And while we certainly need more doctors, nurses and teachers, I believe it is important that we teach these kids about other types of careers. Of course, my focus is careers in HTM, and it is my goal to get kids excited about the possibility of working in this field. AAMI has worked to address this by including a presentations for middle school students as a part of its HTM in a box. When working with younger kids, I strive to include fun, interactive activities along with information about the field. My goal is to participate in more events for middle school and elementary school students and to introduce HTM to them. I will work to build their enthusiasm. I’m hopeful that this will pay off in the long term and help to create the next generation of HTM professionals.