Hundreds of Students Participate in Virtual Healthcare Interactive

Salt Lake City Utah — Career and Technical Education (CTE) high school students across the state of Utah will participate in a Virtual Healthcare Interactive (VHI) live broadcast, in partnership with the Utah State Office of Education (USOE) and Intermountain Healthcare.

The two-hour event begins with students watching a pre-recorded artificial knee surgery followed by a live chat with surgeons/physicians using real-time technology. In conjunction with the live broadcast, students will receive exposure to a variety of healthcare careers related to the surgery as well as pre- and post-event curricula and activities designed to provide them with the background information they need in order to understand the surgery/procedure.

There will be nine broadcast sites across the state, including those within technology centers. Three-hundred and forty-three high school students from nine school districts and 30 high schools, and physicians from Intermountain Healthcare, will participate in this event. The participating school districts are: Alpine, Canyons, Carbon, Granite, Jordan, Nebo, Ogden, Tooele, and Weber. The participating high schools/technology centers are: Bonneville, Brighton, Carbon, Fremont, Granite Technical Institute, Jordan Applied Technology Center, Jordan, Lighthouse, Lone Peak, Nebo Technology Center, Ogden, Roy, and Tooele Community Learning Center.

With increased confidentiality concerns, Work-Based Learning experiences have decreased in the healthcare area over the last few years. Engaging students through technology allows hospitals to bring more students into their environment with limited liability exposure and minimal interruption to the hospital.

USOE Health Science Education Specialist Tara Bell says, "Because of HIPAA and other hospital regulations, it is very hard for students to do job shadows and internships in a hospital setting. With Virtual Healthcare Interactive, students not only learn about the different careers involved in patient care, they get to virtually step into an operating room. VHI allows for opportunities that students would not normally have through the pre-event activities, the pre-event site visit, and the live event."

Healthcare is one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the United States, employing over 18 million workers in more than 200 careers. According to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the United States will need 5.6 million more healthcare workers by the year 2020.​​