Spiderweb of Healthcare!

On October 9, the Helping Hands in Healthcare LLC staff proudly held an event entitled the "Spiderweb of Healthcare." The event began with some tasty snacks for all of those who attended. We were lucky enough to have Joel and Kate, College of Health Sciences Academic Advisors, make a special appearance and present to our audience. Additionally, we also invited two graduate students to stop by the event who chatted with us about their experiences as CHS students.

After everyone gathered in and snacked for a little while, Joel began with a presentation in which he incorporated all of the majors and career pathways the College of Health Sciences has to offer. Having a firm understanding of the large plethora of career pathways within the healthcare field can allow for selecting a major that new students, many of whom are indecisive about their majors, can feel comfortable and passionate about pursuing. Following Joel's wonderful presentation of different majors and careers, he dove into a segment in which case studies were presented to the students. These case studies would present some type of medical scenario in which professionals from different sectors in the healthcare field would need to provide some type of care. This was a cool way to test everyone's understanding of what each profession does specifically. For example: If someone in the scenario had suffered a stroke, it was our duty to determine what types of medical professionals would likely deal with the rehab process. In this case, occupational/physical therapists, speech pathologists, and nurses would all be involved in the immediate care and rehab process.

After the presentation, a graduate student from UWM's Occupational Therapy program talked with the audience about her experience as an undergraduate student. She discussed how she decided to pursue a career in occupational therapy as well as what is required in an individual to be proficient and effective as an occupational therapist in the professional world. Following her informative presentation, another UWM graduate student within the Communication Sciences and Disorders program chatted about her experiences, struggles, and successes as an undergraduate student as well as a graduate student. This proved to be a highly effective presentation for all of us, as it's always intriguing and more relatable to hear about experiences from other students just like ourselves. Both graduate students provided tremendous insight to us as all and we were all greatly appreciative of them speaking to us in such an open and honest manner!

All in all, everyone truly seemed to enjoy the event (not just because of the free food). November LLC event planning is already well underway. Stay tuned in to your RAs and Mentors as we'll keep you informed as to when the next event will be and what it all entails! Over and out.

- Patrick Frigge, Mentor