Case Study: Reading Hospital 2024 Achievement Award

Workforce Innovators—Large Division

High School Internship Program: Expanding a Pipeline for High School Seniors Interested in Healthcare

The Goal

The goal of the High School Internship Program (Internship Program) was to help to positively influence future educational and career goals, leading students to confirm their desire to work in health care while also having a downstream effect on health care worker shortages by serving as a pipeline for encouraging and supporting students to pursue careers in health care areas where the greatest shortages exist.

Intervention

The Internship Program sought to simultaneously address gaps in career exploration opportunities, as well as hospital staffing shortages by providing an opportunity to enhance students’ academic, professional, and personal development through hands-on experiences that allow them to apply and develop their knowledge and skills in real life situations.

Implementation of the Internship Program has multiple phases which often run simultaneously and include Recruitment and Selection, Onboarding and Orientation, Scheduling and Placement, the Internship Experience, and Evaluation.

Since its inception, interest in the program has continued to grow with many local school districts reaching out to explore the possibility of their students’ participation. Each year more applications are received as the program continues to expand and awareness increases.

Results

The Internship Program, one of the first of its kind offered in the community, launched during 2014, with its first class of six students from one high school graduating in June 2015.

Now in its tenth year, the Internship Program has expanded as a result of its proven success and interest from both hospital and local academic stakeholders and is currently hosting 29 high school seniors.

Since its inception, the program has hosted 117 students (88 program graduates) from 14 local school districts.

 

Download

Topics: Quality Initiatives, Workforce

Revision Date: 2/20/2024

Return to Previous Page