Kids learn about health care jobs at Covenant Ready Summer Program

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - Covenant Health hosted their first annual free summer program called Covenant Ready this week. The program is for middle school students grades 6 to 8 to see real health care professionals in action.

The students got to have a hands-on experience, touring the hospital, taking x-rays, watching a pig lung demonstration and checking out emergency vehicles.

The program was designed to recruit the next generation of health care workers and encourage students to study STEM. Students had the chance to ask questions at the fifteen stations that they explored during the day.

Terri Morris, the program manager for talent pipeline, said “One of the things we noticed that kids didn’t really know what all was involved inside a hospital, so once you kinda get in here we are like a little city. We wanted the opportunity to show them that you can be anything. You can be a doctor, a nurse, yes, but you can absolutely be anything, so they are getting to see radiology, the lab. They are getting to see all the different areas of the hospital. We wanted to introduce them to really what happens at a hospital.”

Morris said she wanted students to have the opportunity to explore a future in medicine. She said that this age group is especially important because the middle school students are deciding what career path they want to go into.

Terri Morris says, “It’s so exciting, it kinda renews your spirit when you see this is the future of healthcare in Lubbock. We want to raise our own and grow our own and so this is the future of nursing, this is the future of Covenant.”

Morris said that not only does this teach students about the medical field, it also helps eliminate kids’ fear of hospitals and injuries.

“It also gets rid of the white coat syndrome,” Moore said. “So if you are playing football, you get a football injury and you have to come in here now, you’re not scared.”

This year’s program ends on July 14, but Covenant hopes to continue the program annually.

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