Welcome!
Welcome to our final day of M*A*S*H Camp! I know we’ve covered a lot of different healthcare related topics and career options, but we’ll close today’s camp with just a few more.
As you explore the last experiences of our camp, ask yourself some questions:
Do I care deeply about other people, their problems, and their pain?
Do I enjoy helping people?
Do I enjoy learning, gaining new understanding?
Do I often dig deeper into a subject than my teacher requires? Do I understand the value of learning beyond just making good grades?
Am I interested in how the human body functions?
Am I intrigued by the ways medicine can be used to improve life?
If you answered "Yes" to most of these questions, chances are you have the right kind of personality for a medical career.
Getting Started
Even More to Explore!
There are even more medical professions than what we can cover in a one week camp. Each has its own unique career path with different skills and degrees required.
The bottom line is that healthcare is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. There’s high demand from some professions, like nursing. Qualified people usually find jobs easily. Other fields, like music therapy, are fairly new on the scene. There might even be all kinds of new, nontraditional medical jobs like that in the future.
Take a look at some of the professions we did have a chance to explore and we encourage you to do your own research:
...and so many more! Ask the health care professionals in your life what they love about their job. Analyze your skills and passions and explore careers that fall within your interests and goals.
Biomedical Engineer
Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes (e.g. diagnostic or therapeutic). This field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine, combining the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical biological sciences to advance health care treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy.
7 Biomedical Engineering Breakthroughs that Changed Lives
Source: Ad Astra Florida Tech - https://adastra.fit.edu/blog/academicsresearch/Biomedical engineering is a field that entails development of both devices and procedures that improve the lives of patients and allow healthcare professionals to solve problems more effectively. Here are some of the breakthroughs that have occurred in biomedical engineering throughout its history that have had the biggest impact and changed lives:
X-ray machines - This century-old technology allows medical professionals to see broken bones, dental cavities, and other things inside the human body that need attention.
Electrocardiographs - Another century-old technology, EKG machines can tell doctors whether a patient’s heart is functioning normally or needs more study or treatment.
Nanotechnology - Nanoparticles are tiny, often microscopic particles that are increasingly used to detect and treat various forms of cancer at an almost cellular level.
Brain-Machine Interface - These devices help people’s brains communicate with prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs, and other assistive devices to make them move.
Eko Core - This device takes data gathered from a stethoscope and puts it on the cloud, where a doctor can download it onto a smartphone or a tablet. This data is more accurate and definitive than a doctor’s listening alone, and can be used to avoid specialist care when it isn’t really needed.
Bluetooth Pulse Oximeter - Monitoring a patient’s blood oxygen level just got a lot easier with the recent introduction of two devices that use Bluetooth to deliver the information to a smartphone or tablet using an app, allowing doctors to more closely keep track of a patient’s condition.
Genome editing - Technology termed CRISPR allows genetic code to be modified so that diseases and pathogens can be eliminated, and with further development, may revolutionize medicine in numerous ways.
What have we left off this list? Can you think of any other biomedical engineering advancements? Can you think of any wearable devices? How about making tissues and organs?
STEM@Home - Prosthetic Hand
Engineers study nature and apply their knowledge of science to create solutions to problems. Just like a biomedical engineer, you’ll need to understand the mechanics of your hand, in order to build a replica out of household materials.
Before you get started, think about:
What tasks and movements can be done by the human hand?
What structures are found in the human hand?
How do the parts of the human hand work together to complete a task?
How can engineers develop an artificial hand that mimics the human hand?
Materials Needed:
Tape
Scissors
Cardboard paper or cardstock paper
Standard drinking straws
Pearl drink straws or bigger diameter straws
Yarn or twine
X-ray technicians (also known as X-ray technologists or radiologic technologists) use cutting-edge imaging methods to visualize the inside of the human body. The pictures they create help physicians to diagnose and treat illnesses or injuries with great accuracy. Technicians have a unique opportunity to work with some of the most exciting and groundbreaking medical machinery available. They also get the satisfaction of assisting and supporting patients, including those who are nervous or in pain.
X-ray technicians work with a wide variety of imaging technologies, including:
Traditional X-ray machines
Computerized axial tomography (CT)
Fluoroscopy
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Film and digital mammography
Steps to Become an X-Ray Technician
Earn an associate degree at minimum. Beginning in 2015, technicians have been required to obtain at least an associate degree in order to be eligible for certification. Whether you’re a candidate for a certificate program or instead are looking for an associate or bachelor’s degree in radiologic technology, make sure you choose a program from an accredited institution in order to be eligible for national certification through The American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT).
2. Become ARRT-certified. Not all X-ray technicians are officially required to earn certification; in some states, you must get certified in order to become licensed.
3. Get licensed if required by your state. A majority of states require licensure, though the requirements are not consistent. Candidates must meet educational requirements and pass an exam, but some states waive the testing requirement for technicians who are ARRT-certified.
4. As you gain experience, consider your options for advancement. Experienced X-ray technicians can expect salary increases and greater flexibility in scheduling and shift selection. There are also numerous opportunities for radiologic technicians to specialize in a clinical area of interest such as MRI or cardiac imaging.
STEM Challenge: Create your own X-Ray
Let’s learn just a little bit about how x-rays work.
X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, similar to visible light. Unlike light, however, x-rays have higher energy and can pass through most objects, including the body. Medical x-rays are used to generate images of tissues and structures inside the body. If x-rays travelling through the body also pass through an x-ray detector on the other side of the patient, an image will be formed that represents the “shadows” formed by the objects inside the body.
Today’s activity is going to replicate this experience but utilizing the sun and paper bones!
Materials Needed:
Sun Sensitive Paper
Plastic top sheet
Hand bone print out
Water
Tape (optional)
Instructions:
Find the packet of materials included in your kit. Be sure not to open them in the sun!
Use the hand bone print out included to explore the different bones in your hand? Did you know you had so many? Using this image, label the different types of bones you can find in your hand.
Cut out the hand. We recommend cutting out the whole hand as one piece, but for more advanced students, you can cut out each individual bone. You’ll need to remember where each piece goes and reassemble it though.
Pull out one of the pieces of sun sensitive paper. Be sure to stay out of direct sunlight.
Place or assemble your hand on top. Make sure it’s laying flat on the sun paper.
Add the plastic sheet on top of the hand cut out to hold it in place. You may also consider using a few pieces of tape on each of the edges to secure your three layers together. If using tape, make sure it’s clear tape like Scotch tape, rather than masking tape. This could be helpful if it's a windy day.
Carefully place the arrangement in direct sunlight for 1-5 minutes (longer for cloudy days). Just like a real x-ray machine, light rays will bounce off the paper bones, but be absorbed by what’s underneath them. This will cause the sun paper to fade from blue to white.
Remove the paper from direct sunlight and take off the plastic cover and bone skeleton. Quickly rinse the sun paper in water for 1-5 minutes. The water will expose your x-ray by turning the background a dark blue and will lighten the area that your bones were laying in.
Allow the sun paper to fully dry. The paper may continue to darken for several hours after. Flatten under a large heavy book, if desired.
If something goes wrong, try again with the other piece of sun paper. Or capture a sun picture of another item, like a flower or other objects.
Surgeon
In modern medicine, a surgeon is a physician who performs surgery. Surgery is a medical specialty that uses manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pathological condition such as a disease or injury, to help improve bodily function or appearance or to repair unwanted ruptured areas.You might have also heard it called a surgical procedure, operation, or simply "surgery".
Surgeons have particularly good motor skills. Hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity and attention to detail are all absolute musts for anyone doing small but vital jobs like severing blood vessels, cutting out tumors or stitching wounds. You need to be able to keep a very steady hand under pressure!
So let’s practice!
STEM@HOME: Practice your surgical skill set
Similar to our experience with sutures earlier this week, surgeons use special tools to help them perform an operation on a patient.
Materials Needed:
Variety of items of different shape, sizes, and material
Marbles
Pennies
Buttons
Foam ball
M&Ms
Shoe Laces
Fruit with seeds
Different types of utensils like
Tweezers
Chopsticks
Tongs
Containers with larger and smaller openings
Timer (optional)
Try doing the following:
As fast as you can, sort your M&Ms into different cups by color using each of the utensils. Which utensil worked best? Try making it more challenging by cutting small holes in the plastic lids so you have to be more precise about how you pick up and set down each M&M. Think of it like the game Operation and don’t let your utensil touch the sides of the containers or lid. What was your fastest time?
Try using two different tools (one in each hand) to tie your shoe laces.
Pick up different objects like the penny and button with your different tools. Try doing it without touching the surface they’re on. Which is the most challenging?
Use your different utensils to pick up the marble and foam ball. Notice the difference on how hard you can or have to squeeze? Imagine the foam ball is a piece of soft tissue in your patient. As gently as possible, move it from one container to another using each of your tools. Which one works best?
5. Use your tools to stack the cups. You should try stacking the cups inside one another without a lid. Place the lid on and try again. Now try picking the cups up and flipping every other one over to make a tall tower where each cup is lid to lid or bottom to bottom.
6. If you have a piece of fruit, like a strawberry, try using your tweezers to gently remove the seeds without damaging the flesh around it. What is the most challenging part of this? What tools would make this work easier?
7. Can you use your tweezers to unfold a paper clip into a straight line?
Reflection
Post-Camp Survey
Thank you for joining us!
We hope this camp has been fun and you learned a thing or two about medical careers. We need more bright minds like you to pursue a career in medicine and help change the lives of countless people.
Hopefully many of your questions have been answered about healthcare careers, and you’ve probably got many more questions! The Tulsa Public Library has many books for kids on the subject. You can also learn more and explore resources at KidsHealth.org.
As the great Winston Churchill said,
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
A career in healthcare is a great way for you to lead a full, highly rewarding life. We can’t wait to see what you accomplish!
