BY BRYAN SABELLA
Staff Writer
PHOTOSBY CHRIS KELLY staff Recovery nurse Daniel Motta shows students how to read an EKG monitor on the final day of Raritan Bay Medical Center’s “Healthcare Connection” program.
It’s an oft-repeated cliché, the notion of parents encouraging their children to become doctors when they grow up. And for those kids who do aspire to careers in medicine the task is daunting. The path of medical school, internships and residencies along the way to that goal can be incredibly grueling and extremely expensive.
But over the course of the last week of June, several area high school students with just such aspirations had a rare and invaluable opportunity to get a leg up on the process by experiencing the day-to-day workings of a hospital first hand.
Hosted by Raritan Bay Medical Center, at its hospitals in Perth Amboy and Old Bridge, the fifth annual "Healthcare Connection" program covered the broad spectrum from morning briefings to daily rounds to surgery and post-operational procedures.
Eight students in all — six from Middlesex County, one from Short Hills and one from Jersey City — were selected to participate out of an applicant pool of more than 40.
They spent the first four days at the Perth Amboy division getting an insider’s view of daily operations. For the final day last Friday, the students visited the Old Bridge location where they were shown pre- and post-surgical procedures, witnessed minor surgery and visited a recovery room.
Susan Pasternack of the hospital’s Community Relations Department described the process of picking the students for the event. Students 16 or older must be recommended by guidance counselors and teachers and submit an essay. The field is whittled down to 15 who are called in for personal interviews.
"Each year we select an average of five or six students," Pasternack said. "Eight is a little much, but these kids were so good I couldn’t pass them up."
The program is extra special because it’s free. Pasternack noted that similar versions offered for high school students across the country may routinely charge $2,000 a head.
"And some of those are just lecture programs. We give [the students] a real hospital setting. And it’s very comprehensive," Pasternack said.
Indeed, over the course of the week, the participants observed nearly every facet of the medical profession. They visited the emergency room and the morgue, observed the workings of pediatrics and radiology, and met with paramedics and residents. They even had lunch with Michael D’Agnes, president and chief executive officer of Raritan Bay Medical Center.
Anthony McDonough, who will begin his senior year at St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen this fall, relished the experience. "I always wanted to be a doctor since I was six," he said.
While volunteering at the Perth Amboy division, he heard about the program and applied.
"I heard about it being similar to a medical internship," he said.
Colonia High School’s Arpan Patel heard about the program through his anatomy and physiology teacher, who ended up recommending him. Patel, a Woodbridge resident, said he wants to become a heart surgeon and hopes to make it into the Accelerated Medical Program at Northwestern University after he completes his senior year.
While Patel had already chosen the specialty he’d like to work in, the program may have helped others, like Britni Buffalino of Edison’s Bishop Ahr High School, choose a focus.
"I knew I wanted to be a doctor," she said, "but I wasn’t sure what [kind of doctor] I wanted to be. After this week, I’m really interested in emergency medicine."
Hina Aslam of Edison High School, who aims to follow in the footsteps of her father and uncle and become a neurologist, also listed the emergency room as one of the week’s highlights, citing its fast pace and element of unpredictability.
"You don’t know what to expect," she said.
Spotswood High School’s Larissa Fesio, when asked about a highlight from the program, thought for a minute. "I think the cardiac catheterization," she decided.
When asked if it made her squeamish, she responded in the negative, a quality sure to serve her well in her ambition to become a nurse anesthesiologist.
Pasternack said the week was tiring, but well worth it. "It’s a scheduling nightmare for me," she said of the busy slate of activities the students run through. And she’s quick to credit the personnel at the Perth Amboy and Old Bridge divisions for helping to make it happen.
"We have such a generous staff, and they really gave their time to the kids," she said.