RANDALLSTOWN, Md. (WMAR) — On a Tuesday inside Northwest Hospital, a group of about eleven high school teens are trading in their book bags for scrubs and getting to work.
"You get to really see what the nurses actually really do instead of really attending to you and giving you medicine because they have to do other patients. You're basically, like, not by yourself," David Ezeala, a rising senior at Randallstown High School, said.
His goal is to become a physical therapist for a professional football or basketball team -- preferably the Baltimore Ravens.
Aspirations he's building on starting in hospital rooms.
David and his classmates are the first of what those at the hospital hope will be a pipeline into the future.
It's a program designed to inspire and teach the next generation of health care professionals by reaching out to them when they're as young as in the ninth grade and figuring out what they're interests are.
"A program like this actually allows them to see what they do and do not like as far as going into the medical profession. A lot of times, they have these ideas of what they see on TV like ER and "Grey's Anatomy' and actually being in a hospital allows them to see it's not as such," Tara Boynton, with Lifebridge Health, said.
But it isn't just experience watching surgeries, administrative work is available too.
Yolanda Jacobs-Chapman hasn't made up her mind yet -- she's interned with both departments.
"Some days -- I don't know it depends on the day -- but I don't mind either. It's a nice small office, Mrs. Teri is nice to work with and she's fun," she said.
It's a leap forward for not only this calls of students, but for the next group next year.
"They're going to enjoy it though. They're going to enjoy it. If this is what they want to do, they're going to enjoy it," Jacobs-Chapman said.
It's an experience, even David says reassured what he wants to do.
"I want to use my skills from everybody who's taught me, the techs and all of that type of stuff, I want to take that to my sports medicine career," he said.
