For the seventh consecutive year, two Bullhead City-area hospitals have come together to provide a rigorous two week job shadowing program for students interested in the medical field. Beginning July 8, sixteen students from five area high schools in three states will be exposed to different health care careers, from the traditional paths of physicians and nursing to allied health, staff support and administrative positions. The M*A*S*H program (Multiple Avenues of Successful Health Care) started in 2013 in conjunction with Valley View Medical Center (VVMC) in Ft. Mohave, Western Arizona Regional Medical Center (WARMC) in Bullhead City and the Colorado River Union High School District (CRUHSD). Students from the Clark County School District and Mohave Accelerated Learning Center (MALC) joined the program one year later, and the Needles Unified School District is participating for the fifth consecutive year.
Students from Laughlin, Mohave, Needles and River Valley High Schools, plus MALC, applied. The 16 selected are primarily incoming seniors. All will have 80 hours of thorough orientation and job shadowing. When they graduate later this month, the students will have learned how to draw and type blood and received their CPR certifications. They will also have spent time in operating rooms, kitchens, medical accounting, housekeeping, plant operations, air ambulance helicopters and other parts of the hospitals.
Since inception, a goal is for some of the students to return to the Tri-State area after college to launch healthcare careers.
This year’s sponsors are Mohave Electric Cooperative, the BHHS Legacy Foundation and Hospice Compassus, whose executive director, Cindy Head, RN, is overseeing the program.
Students needed a minimum 3.0 grade point average, good grades in science and algebra, a 400 word essay and letters of recommendation to be considered. Each hospital is hosting eight students. There is one alternate. Many of the students have a 4.0 or better grade point average.
The Lake Havasu Partnership for Economic Development and Havasu Regional Medical Center created the first M*A*S*H program in the region in 2012 after the initial concept was developed in Willcox at Northern Cochise Community Hospital. HRMC will also host another separate M*A*S*H program this year in Lake Havasu City. And other school districts are now interested in creating similar programs.
