Careers

2023 BMGS Careers Expo

Nepean Health Inspirations Work Experience

For three days at the end of March, Maddison (Yr 10) and I attended the Nepean Health Inspirations Program for some work experience. This program is sponsored by the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District specifically for Year 10 high school students who live or go to school in the region. The aim is for students to get hands-on experience and learn more about the careers available in health, both frontline and behind the scenes. After applying online, we were advised we were successful for the program. 

In total, there were 22 students from ten different schools. It was held at Nepean Hospital.  On the first day, we went through an induction with a nurse demonstrating how to be safe in a hospital including how to use PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). The nurse continued to talk with us about details regarding infectious diseases – this blew our minds! In the afternoon we were lucky enough to talk with a number of different doctors from a variety of fields including an anaesthesiologist, radiologist and a junior surgeon. Hearing what they do in their different fields was fascinating. 

The second day our group was able to tour around various areas in the hospital including the paediatric ward, cardiac ward, surgical theatre, radiology and the cancer treatment centre. In these wards, we got to try different equipment which were safe enough for students to use such as a stethoscope, a BPM monitor and lead aprons. Finally, on the last day, we talked about what we wanted to be when we finish high school, and whether this related to any of the time we had spent together thus far. Some students’ answers were completely different to what they felt at the start of the program. One student went into the program thinking they wanted to be a paramedic, however, due to the discussions from the amazing doctors, they decided they had a new aspiration to be an anaesthesiologist.  One of the highlights of the program for me was when we visited the surgical theatre. We had a mock surgery on a “patient” (I was that patient…). We learnt that for any surgery, it generally takes a minimum of ten different highly qualified practitioners. There would be surgeons, anesthesiologists, assistant nurses, scrub technicians, circulating technicians, junior surgeons etc. Being the patient in this scenario when my drama skills were put to good use, I was able to experience what every practitioner would perform in a surgery which was amazing. Every single person plays a critical role.

I would highly recommend this experience to anyone interested in the Health sector as we as we were able to get a taste of the different roles and what it was really like before carefully choosing our electives for Year 11 and 12, ready for our journey beyond high school. 

Lastly, thank-you to everyone who works in the health sector. You all play a critical role in our lives and I certainly have a greater appreciation for everything you all do. 

Zara Perisce-Burrell

Year 10

Careers Newsletter - Term 3, Week 3

Mrs. Alicia Michielsen

Dean of Curriculum 7-12

Head of Learning Enrichment P-12

Careers Advisor