March 21, 2004 – "White coats!"
Imagine a group of 25 Charlotte Amalie High School students being asked to say a word or two for a commemorative video, the camera technician immediately saying "Ready," and by the time he pushed the button, all 25 students put on big smiles and hollered in unison, "White coats!"
White coats were on the minds of that particular group of CAHS students Thursday evening at the Roy L. Schneider Hospital. A ceremony first outlined a Medical Explorers program, then introduced organizers, special hospital personnel and mentors, and the students taking part, and then presented each student with his or her very own white coat — a laboratory coat, with a special emblem — to wear while on duty for the program.
Each student, when called, came to the front of the room and accepted a white coat from Schneider Hospital CEO Rodney S. Miller Sr. Many were serious, some smiled, and a few were downright gleeful, one even hugging her neatly folded white coat as she took her seat.
Many proud parents and friends were in the audience. When he spoke, hospital board member Horace Brooks said, "Parents, you are doing the right thing; you are here with them."
Proud parents, friends, program mentors and hospital staff heard first from the chief executive officer, who called it a "new day, new era for this hospital." Ticking off major accomplishments in the past year — accreditation, construction under way right out front for the Charlotte Kimelman Cancer Institute — Miller named several "senior team" hospital staff who had major roles in making those achievements happen.
The Medical Explorers White Coat program enters the lists as a new achievement. A collaborative effort of the Schneider Hospital, Charlotte Amalie High School, and the V.I. Council of Boy Scouts of America, and organized by a group headed by Benedicta "Bennie" Acosta-Donastorg, the program will bring the 25 students to the hospital after school three days a week for the next 10 weeks. There they each will don their own white coat and head for one of 19 participating hospital departments, where they will work.
Each afternoon will be not just "shadowing" a medical professional or hearing about someone's job; instead, the student will take part in projects in fields such as diagnostic imaging, pharmacy, financial services, laboratory nursing, and physical therapy. Obviously, for liability reasons they won't perform medical procedures, Miller said, but they'll do most everything else. They will learn the answer to a question chief financial officer and hospital lawyer Amos Carty heard at the ceremony: "What does a hospital need a lawyer for?" They will see how the emergency room works, where patients go when they're staying at the hospital after their ER visit, how that food on patients' trays gets selected and prepared, what happens to all the paperwork, the medical records, the computer records, what time of day the floors get mopped in a 24-hour facility. By the end of the program, each Medical Explorer will have "rotated through" each of the departments.
They aren't necessarily sure they want a medical career, but this program presents them with the opportunity to find out what working in the hospital can encompass. One young lady, when asked if she knew what she'd be doing after high school, said very decidedly, "I'm going to medical school to become a neonatologist and come back home to work."
"I'm really happy we have males in the group," Miller said. Nationally, fewer than 5 percent of nurses are males — a sad statistic, especially with the extreme nursing shortage right here on island. In addition to doctors, nurses and professional technicians, Miller said he hoped in the group there'd be one who ended up as a hospital administrator. He cited an even worse statistic: There are 5,000-plus hospitals in the United States, and fewer than 2 percent of hospital administrators are minorities. An obvious role model, he clearly loves his job.
A video presented other venues where Medical Explorers explore: firefighting, EMS, oil company executive offices, code blue medics, police dispatch, rope climbing, and more.
Medical director Dr. Thelma Ruth Watson spoke, first observing that she's a CAHS graduate. She hopes the group includes some doctors and nurses: "Nurses, doctors can't work without them. They're our right hand, left hand, eyes and ears." But she chiefly hopes some of the group, after getting their future education, will return to work in the Virgin Islands.
Unable to be present, but noted by Miller as very supportive of the program, was Charles Tinsley, Scout executive for the V.I. Council, Boy Scouts of America.
CAHS principal Jeannette Smith sat at the head table, beaming throughout. When she spoke, she observed that the hospital has been a good neighbor to CAHS, and she likes involvement of the two agencies "in other ways than the ambulance."
"Chickenhawks excel all over," she said, "so they will here, too."
An informal gathering for photo opportunities and dinner ended the evening's ceremony. There parents, grandparents, young sisters and brothers joined the CAHS students, all proudly wearing their "White Coats."
Taking part in the program are CAHS students Jose Amaro, Brad Andre, Jonel Brookes, Aleta Brown, Charley Charles, Norma Charles, Jerscillia Desiree, Troy Felicien, Jasmine Fenton, Amber Garnette, Chere Harley, Ebonie Huyghue, Deshawn Isaac, Janysha John, Dessere Lindo, Rifca Mathurin, Winsome Nisbett, Alayna Petersen, Vanica Pharoah, Anyssa Richardson, Elliott Richards, Melvina Ryan, Shadin Thomas, Cadwell Turnbull, and Johanna Tuitt.
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