Students get hands on lesson in medical simulation lab. Provided photo.

Typically a hospital is the last place a person wants to find themselves in. It signifies that something has gone wrong–from a head cold to a heart attack–and that the person or the loved one in their care needs help. The team at HCA Florida Sarasota Doctors Hospital knows that. They also know, however, that for some people a hospital is exactly where they want to be. To be on the front lines of medicine, giving their all to help those in need. On April 18, the hospital welcomed students from the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties for a day spent learning the ins and outs of what it’s like to work in a hospital.

“It’s exciting just to hopefully inspire people. My understanding was that all of the kids that spent time with us were interested in the medical field in some capacity and they're at that perfect age where they have a really big responsibility of figuring out what they want to do with the rest of their lives,” says Yukiko Brewer, MD, one of the resident physicians at the hospital. “It’s exciting to be that helping hand and say, ‘this is an avenue and if this is something that you’re interested in, I’m here to help you.’ I was lucky enough to have someone extend a hand to me and show me this world. That changed my life and I’m hoping I do that for someone else.”

While there, students were able to tour the facilities and meet with the hospital’s senior leadership team, including the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer. The students also worked alongside Dr. Brewer in the simulation lab, which she runs as a resident of internal medicine. The simulation lab is where both residents like Dr. Brewer and senior doctors practice their techniques on a life-sized training mannequin.

“I let the students use our stethoscopes, they got to listen to their heart and lungs which sounds funny, but is exciting to hear what it sounds like for the first time. They all got a stethoscope to take home,” says Dr. Brewer. “Then they got to play with our ultrasound machine to find their arteries and veins. They also got to do CPR on our simulation dummy and see what intubation is like and what happens to the lungs during intubation.”

HCA Florida Doctors Hospital, 5731 Bee Ridge Rd, Sarasota.

Students get hands on lesson in medical simulation lab. Provided photo.

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