Loading ...Health North Careers
Students gather to learn about health careers.
Health North Careers is a health career promotion project that brings knowledge and encouragement about entering health professions to high school students across northern Saskatchewan. An overview is below. For details on this project, visit the Health North Careers website .
See schools that have been visited, to date, as part of this project.
See more photos from this project.
Overview
A series of presentations at northern High Schools, promoting careers in the field of health, began in January 2009. As a result of these visits, there has been recognition that there must be continuity and presence to engage the students, and that it is essential for the students to be approached in a manner that is inclusive and interactive in order to engage their interest.
This project commenced on December 10, 2007 as part of the Northern Health Strategy’s overall mission. The mandate of Northern Health Strategy involves engaging and connecting with youth using partnerships between schools, health professionals and health care providers for the benefit of educational institutions, the health care system and, most importantly, the students.
The project’s goal was to promote careers in health across Northern Saskatchewan. Students in the North needed to be encouraged and enabled to consider health careers because of the growing number of shortages in all areas of health care.
Approximately 15 high schools and two Northlands College institutes participated in the ensuing health career presentations.
Career Exploration meeting
Discussions between Andrea Custer (Northern Health Strategy) and Colleen Charles (the Nothern Sport, Culture, and Recreation District) began in December 2008. They talked about how presentations to students needed an interactive approach to engage the attention of students. Students sitting and listening to a speaker for an hour was something that needed to be enhanced.
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The first meeting took place at the Northern Career Quest boardroom on January 5, 2009, in La Ronge, Saskatchewan. It included Colleen Charles, Connie Leavey from Prince Albert Grand Council Justice, Eric Gardiner and Lewis Black from Cameco, Charlene Bosiak from Youth Town Council, and Nap Gardiner and Andrea Custer from Northern Health Strategy. A model was introduced to capture the main components in a successful event when approaching students interactively, while still sharing the recruitment efforts by the participating organizations. Interest was evident, so a second meeting was scheduled for February 10, 2009 through Keewatin Career Development Corporation.
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The second meeting involved video conferencing, so that students could participate in the meeting. In attendance were the Youth Town Councils from: Sandy Bay, Pinehouse and Buffalo Narrows including the Mayor Bobby Woods; Colleen Charles; Darwin Roy and Lewis Black; Walter Smith, CEO from the Cameco Northern Affairs Office; and Charlene Lavallee, chair for the Interprovincial Association on Native Employment. Dialogue led to a Student Career Exploration guide (attached) and confirmation of the schools’ and YTCs’ participation in the months of April and May 2009.
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A third meeting was held in March 2009 with Colleen Charles; Eric Gardiner; Lester Cook from Job Horizons; and Nap Gardiner and Andrea Custer. Discussions surrounded a finalized version of the student exploration guide, with appendices.
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The first school visit, with Sandy Bay, occurred in the second week of April, 2009.
This partner in the Health North Careers project has made presentations on Nursing as a Career and on Youth Suicide.
Background
To see if there was an interest from schools in the career exploration initiative, an e-mail was sent out to six schools, four of which said that they would be more than interested in participating. Arrangements were made for April 24 & 25, 2009. The participating schools were Black Lake, Pelican Narrows, Buffalo Narrows and Canoe Lake, Saskatchewan. Buffalo Narrows, which had just started a student council, noted that the question had come at an opportune time.