Filling the Ranks for the Future: Teaching high school students that there's more to healthcare than being a doctor.

The healthcare co-op program involves a partnership between the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and two teaching facilities: the University Health Network (UHN) and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (SHSC), both in Toronto. The UHN program started in 1994 and the S&W program started in 2000, as a result of high demand for placements at UHN.

Q: What were the reasons for starting the program? What are the objectives?

A: The healthcare partnerships allow students to do co-op placements in hospitals. The large teaching hospitals provide a wealth of opportunities for co-op students, but it was very difficult for individual teachers to make connections with hospital departments and staff.

Objectives:

• To allow students to explore the wide variety of healthcare career options.

• To assist the students to develop work habits, attitudes, and job skills that are necessary for a successful transition from secondary school to the workplace or to post-secondary education.

• The placements provide practical experience in a hospital setting, allowing students to apply knowledge gained at school to a practical workplace setting.

Q: How does the program work? What are the minimum requirements (e.g. marks)? Do the students have to be in a minimum grade level or of a minimum age?

A: Students who are interested in careers in healthcare or hospital support services complete an application form, which is forwarded to one of the coordinators: Ken Taylor (for UHN placements) or Nancy Britton (for SHSC placements).

To apply, students have to be at least 16 years old. (This is age requirement is at the hospitals' request, not part of Ministry of Education policy for cooperative education.) Because requirements vary according to placement being sought, there are no specific marks required. For example, a student seeking a research placement will need to have strong academics, but strong academics are less of a focus for a student seeking a placement in support services. All students will need to have a positive attitude, good attendance, initiative, and good communication skills. Each student is interviewed and, if the interview is successful, is accepted into a placement.

Q: Are there any healthcare professions excluded from the co-op program (e.g. physicians/surgeons)?

A: No area is specifically excluded, but few physicians will participate directly in the program because they are too busy. A student may have some contact with a physician if they are working in a clinic or department, and as a highlight of the experience get to observe a medical procedure.

Q: How many students on average do you place each year?

A: In total, approximately 200 students are placed across the two programs.

Q: Which healthcare professions or areas are the most popular for co-op placement? Can you rank them in order of popularity?

A: In order of highest to lowest numbers:

• Nursing

• Doctor

• Medical Imaging

• Pharmacy

• Physiotherapy

• Researcher

• Medical Administration

• Medical Laboratory Technology

• Social Work

• Dietitian

• Occupational Therapy

• Respiratory Therapy

• Support Services (e.g. plant operations, security, printing, wig salon, day care)

Q: Which healthcare profession(s) are the least popular, or least requested, for co-op placements?

A: All of the professions are popular, but some are less known to most high school students. One of the benefits of the program is that by coming to large teaching hospitals, students will have an opportunity to see all the numerous roles that work together to provide quality patient care.

Q: How long is the co-op placement and how many hours per week/day do students spend in the placement? Do students get credits for the placement?

A: There are a variety of possible schedules, and the number of hours spent at a placement depends on the number of credits the student is seeking. One credit equals 110 hours. Most co-op students take two or four credits.

For semestered schools (where semesters run September to January, and February to June), students seeking two credits usually spend half of every weekday at school, and half of every weekday in the placement. For four credits, students are usually at their placement all day, each week day. For non-semestered schools (where the year runs September to June), students usually are in their placement rotation every second day.

Q: What sorts of work would a co-op student in each of the following areas do: nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy, medical imaging, respiratory therapy, other?

A: In all of the fields listed above students work in supportive roles. They are not trained and licensed as the staff are, so there are limits to what they can be allowed to do. For example, on a nursing unit, students would be involved in setting up charts, organizing supplies, and assisting at the nurses' station with admin duties. Also, students are able to observe, with patient permission, the duties that only a licensed professional can do, such as dressing changes, administering medications, etc. The students interact with patients doing things that a family member or volunteer might do.

Q: What is the feedback from the co-op sites regarding the students?

A: The staff members enjoy having students. Many are natural teachers and mentors to the students. Staff members are very supportive of the program, because they recognize the need to fill the ranks for the future. Some staff routinely call the on-site coordinator at the change of each semester to make sure they will get another student!

Q: What feedback do you receive from students about the placements?

A: The students love their placements! It is with regret that they leave, and they sometimes continue on as volunteers. At UHN, the program has been going long enough that some students who have done co-op here, have gone on to college or university, and then come back to their old placement department or unit for practicums or as staff members.

Q: What is your role in the program?

A: Ken Taylor, BMus, BEd, RN

On-site Educator, UHN-TDSB Cooperative & Career Education Partnership

I administer all aspects of the program, including:

• Promoting the program to schools and within UHN;

• Interviewing and placing students;

• Ensuring that students complete all requirements for placement (e.g. TB tests must be completed before a student is allowed to start);

• Following students to ensure they have the support needed to be successful;

• Developing new placements within UHN;

• Problem solving and communications with hospital staff, teachers, and students;

• Organizing the end of year event and student awards;

• Organizing the Health Care Co-op Committee, which is a committee of staff from healthcare organizations and co-op teachers from across the Greater Toronto Area. The committee works to facilitate placement of students in healthcare co-op, and addresses concerns and issues surrounding the co-op.

Nancy Britton, RN, BA, BEd

Cooperative Education Program Coordinator, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

I administer all aspects of the program, including:

• Promoting the program to schools and within SHSC;

• Interviewing students and coordinating placements;

• Conducting hospital orientation sessions for students before they begin their placements;

• Providing support to students, supervisors, and teachers to ensure a successful placement experience;

• Recruiting new placements in the hospital (including its three campuses, the on-site daycare, Wellspring, and the Estates of Sunnybrook);

• Organizing the year-end Cooperative Education Event, which includes nominations for student awards, appreciation certificates for participating supervisors, and certificates of achievement for all participating and successful students.

The main difference between the UHN and S&W programs, is that I (Nancy) still do actual "teaching" (i.e., preparing and marking lessons) as a classroom teacher would. (These integration lessons are conducted on-site.) In this capacity, additional responsibilities include:

• Organizing workshops, guest speakers, and field trips to enhance student learning;

• Preparing students prior to their placements by providing required curriculum for pre-orientation (e.g. Health and Safety, Policies and Procedures, Résumé Writing and Cover Letters, The Interview);

• Monitoring students' learning at their placements;

• Assessing and evaluating students' learning (in-school and out-of-school), and providing feedback to students on an ongoing basis;

• Developing personalized placement learning plans for students in conjunction with the supervisor and the student;

• Calculating marks;

• Providing integration classes for students as required by Ministry of Education guidelines.

Q: Do you know how many school boards in Ontario (elsewhere?) have a similar program?

A: As far as I know, UHN and SHSC are the only programs where students do co-op in health care departments in Ontario. Hamilton District School Board recently started a program at Hamilton Health Sciences for school-to-work students. The students work only with support services – not directly with the healthcare professionals, as the students do at UHN or SHSC.

Q: Do you have information of how many students: apply for college/university programs in the area in which they did their healthcare co-op placement; apply for college/university programs in a different healthcare area; apply for college/university programs outside of the healthcare setting?

A: Unfortunately we do not have the resources to track that information.

My first thought was – wouldn't it be great to know all of that! But on second thought, the students are developing skills for their future, and these skills are demonstrated in their learning plans. Most, if not all, of the skills are transferable from one area to another. Attitude, responsibility, initiative, communication skills, working with others, etc. are the most important things for the student to take away from a co-op experience. They will explore the field of healthcare and gain the insight needed to make choices for their future education and careers. Wherever the students' career path leads is less important to me, as a co-op teacher, than the fact that they are making those choices with as much information and experience as possible.

Our objective in cooperative education is to assist students to develop the knowledge and skills in order for them to make informed decisions about their futures. Some of the students enter their co-op experience in the hospital thinking they want to go into one field and then learn about another one that they had no idea existed before they worked in the hospital. Others realize that working in a hospital is not really what they want to do. Many students relate hospital careers to only nurses and doctors, but once they are here they realize that the hospital is a community unto itself and there are many more areas besides the more visible ones. There are also many opportunities for students who are making the transition from school to work (rather than college) such as electricians, plumbers, dietary aides, and patient administration associates.

Also see our article, Discovering Healthcare, which is about a related program.

Filling the Ranks for the Future

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Ken Taylor, BMus, BEd, RN

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Nancy Britton, RN, BA, BEd

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