August 3, 2024

Lee’s Summit Medical Center — part of HCA Midwest Health, Kansas City’s leading healthcare provider — hosted its Annual Healthcare Exploration Day on Friday, Jul. 19. Nearly 80 kindergarten through 12th graders with a parent working at Lee’s Summit Medical Center were able to learn firsthand about healthcare careers.

“We are pleased to offer again this lively, inspiring and impactful educational experience for our hospital employees’ children,” said Lee’s Summit Medical Center CEO Gabe Clements. “Our staff is excited to offer these kids practical and engaging demonstrations about career fields in a high-tech and high-touch hospital. The students also get a feel for our staff members’ diverse roles to ensure all the hospital’s operations run smoothly for the best possible patient experience.”

Hospital department leaders created an exciting day throughout the facility to ensure students understand the diverse roles within a hospital that interact to make a positive difference in a patient’s life. They shared information about their profession in career fields like cardiovascular care, radiology, rehabilitation services, emergency/trauma care, and laboratory and operating room/surgical services. Children received hands-on healthcare education at various creative and educational interactive stations.

This year, Lee’s Summit Medical Center’s respiratory department will demonstrate on pig lungs how lungs function and the role a respiratory therapist plays in helping a patient. Participants were also able to perform a bronchoscopy procedure on cantaloupes or watermelons, using equipment to suck out the seeds.

Another popular activity kids look forward to each year is learning about being a surgeon by manipulating gummy worms around with the specialized instruments of a surgical robot.

“The students get a feel for how a surgeon operates the robot and how precise its movements are, which is the foundation for a great question-and-answer session,” Clements said.