SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane High school and college students interested in medicine now have an opportunity to gain firsthand medical experience.
The COPE Health Scholars Program allows students to learn from and work alongside doctors and nurses as they care for patients.
“This kind of experience for pre-med students is pretty hard to come by,” said scholar Karina Holland.
Holland and other scholars work with doctors and nurses at Deaconess Hospital.
Some scholars are as young as 17.
Through the program, scholars get the chance to gather real-world medical experience before they get to medical school.
“So many times a cool procedure would be happening and a nurse or a physician would come grab me and say, ‘hey you have to watch this,'” said scholar Nadia Mrkaljevic.
Multicare offers two programs, one for high school students and one for college students.
The program is just four hours a week, so students can participate with their busy schedules.
“You can take on more if you want, so that’s a big part of it for me. I don’t have to go all in and put a bunch of time toward this. I can kind of space it out and go at my own pace,” said scholar Owen Packebush.