As a high school student with only a Certified Nursing Assistant license in a hospital, I learned I am at the uttermost bottom of the unofficial healthcare hierarchy present in the hospital setting. As a result, I’ve found it sometimes hard to find a nurse or physician that is willing to teach me and explain to me the procedure they are doing when I am shadowing them at the hospital.
I have definitely found nurses that have been absolutely amazing teachers that were willing to show me so many different kinds of procedures, but there are others that wouldn’t talk to me unless I was assertive and asked questions.
As a result, my Health Science Clinical instructor has instilled strict ways to present ourselves regarding dress codes and behaviors for us to make sure we are taken seriously in the hospital setting. When we first started Health Science Clinical at the CTE Center, we were expected to walk into the CTE Center with a specific dress code (black pen in left pocket, watch with second hand, white shoes, scrubs, no jewelry, absolutely no cell phones). If we came to class without proper dress code, she made us do the “walk of shame” in which we had to walk all the way downstairs, out of the CTE Center and then come back to class in proper dress code.
My instructor’s strictness was definitely annoying at first, but it prepared us to look more professional when we started rotating. A lot of the time, nurses will ask me whether I am a college student and often surprised to find out that I am in high school.
In defeating the stereotype associated with high schoolers as lazy or irresponsible, I’ve found that the healthcare workers I shadow at the hospitals are more likely to take me seriously and allow me perform more hands-on care and teach me different skills and procedures.
Sometimes it’s annoying for the nurses and physicians to dismiss me at the hospital, but the way my instructor has taught me to present myself has definitely allowed me to be taken seriously. The way I present myself along with my initiative in the hospital has definitely allowed me to gain opportunities I wouldn’t have otherwise.
