TALLAHASSEE, Fl. (WTXL) — Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare is helping curb the healthcare worker shortage by reaching out to high school students.
TMH is offering a summer internship program to students interested in becoming surgical technicians.
Susan Branham is the Nurse Manager of operations and educator at TMH. Branham said the program started in response to the shortage of technicians in the area.
"We noticed that here in the community all through Tallahassee, there's a shortage of surgical techs. So we decided to create a program that would help fill that gap," Branham said.
Students in the program will get a behind-the-curtain look at what the job entails two days a week.
"We teach them all about being a surgical tech," Barnham explained. "They get to go in the operating room. They learn all about the instruments."
Students also get 126 volunteer hours and a job offer when they graduate.
"We will hire them as a sterile processing tech or a surgical support tech," Barnham said. "Those are entry-level positions for us."
Branham is one of the many healthcare workers trying to curb the trend — offering a different path for teens wanting to become surgical technicians.
"It's for the student who that want's to take more of a trade school route and just get a profession or for somebody who can't afford to go to college right now and needs to work at something to make good money. until they can afford to go to college," Barnham added.
The deadline to apply for the program is March 1 and students who are hired by TMH also qualify for tuition reimbursement.
Only eight students who apply will be accepted into the program this summer. For more information, click here.
