St. Luke's Quakertown Campus physicians and staff have partnered with Palisades High School and Quakertown Area School District to host a Medical Career Pathways program. The program was designed to expose a dozen high school students from each district who are interested in the medical field to various aspects of the industry.

The program launched last year with 12 students from Palisades and expanded this school year to include Quakertown School District.  This year, 25 students attend lectures every Monday followed by a Wednesday session of shadowing a medical professional, called "clinical observations."

        Students are observing medical professionals at St. Luke's in physical therapy, operating room, post anesthesia care, emergency department, laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, intensive care unit and more. Through learning more about the day to day operations of these medical positions, students are able to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the career. As a result, many students were able to better decide on their educational future.

        Kathy Ramson, RN, MSN, Vice President, Patient Services, St. Luke's Quakertown Campus, said, "This program is a wonderful opportunity for St. Luke's to connect with the community. Being able to interact and mentor these high school students gives us a deeper level of job satisfaction and commitment to our health care field, with an added benefit of engaging high-achieving high school students with interests in health care."

        In the summer of 2013, St. Luke's Quakertown Campus was approached by Palisades High School Administration with the proposal to host a Medical Career Pathways Program for the 2013-2014 school year. Working with high school administrators, the St. Luke's team developed a program to host twelve high school seniors two mornings per week. The students were chosen by school guidance counselors, via an application process for high-achieving students with the intent or interest of entering into healthcare after high school graduation.

        The program was structured to provide the students with a lecture every Monday morning on various topics specific to healthcare. A lecture schedule and a rotation schedule was created for the students to have observational experiences every Wednesday in both clinical and non-clinical departments. Students were supplied with St. Luke's tee-shirts and ID badges to be worn on Wednesday's to identify them during their clinical observations and were provided with binders organize the educational component of the program.  A grant was submitted to help fund the program, and St. Luke's was awarded $2,500 by The Richard E. Gasser Fund of the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation.

        Word had spread about the positive student and school administrative support of the program, and Quakertown Community High School joined Palisades High School for the 2014-2015 school year. Additionally, this year Bucks County Community College began working with the program and the school districts to award college credit for participating students and began offering an Advanced Placement (AP) health care related course given at the schools.

        The hospital-based program runs from September through December, takes a break in January as the students take the AP for-credit class through Bucks County Community College, and reconvenes in February at the hospital.