By Austin Ash
Grace Pisarik walks the halls of Mercy Hospital with the future in the back of her mind. Pisarik was excited for this job shadow as she heard it was fun from some of her peers. Right when she arrived at the hospital, she noted that everyone there was working hard and had a smile on their face. Armed with hours of experience watching the TV show “Grey’s Anatomy,” Pisarik was excited to participate in a job shadow with a surgical technician.
Many of the workers Pisarik interacted with were volunteers at the hospital. Pisarik knows what it is like to be volunteer as she had been volunteering at places like the Ronald McDonald House ever since she started high school.
After Pisarik and all of her peers got settled down at Mercy they began to change into scrubs just like all the workers do there. They started off by learning how different types of surgeries are performed. She got to do some hands-on learning by practicing surgeries with examples given by the nurses at Mercy.
Pisarik got to see and work with the surgical robot in one of the rooms at Mercy. Pisarik thought it was very cool how she got to change into scrubs and act like she was one of workers there herself. She got to practice using IV’s and got feedback on whether or not she was doing it right. Pisarik even got some experience that she wasn’t expecting. When one of the nurses was going over different types of surgeries and giving demonstrations one girl in her group got a little light headed and vomited. The group had to leave the room and carry on with the tour.
“I think everyone should go on job shadows,” Pisarik said. “I think that they are a great experience and even if you don’t have a future in the career it is still a fun time and you get to learn a lot of new things.”
Pisarik recommends that everyone should try all types of job shadows. She believes that you get lots of valuable experience with a particular job and will help you figure out what you want to do with your life later on. “I believe if you find a job that you love, you’ll never have to work the rest of your life.”
After Pisarik attended Mercy Hospital in Cedar Rapids for her job shadow she was certain that she wanted to do something in the medical field after high school. Pisarik has been on lots of job shadows throughout high school, but she claims that this was her favorite because she came out of Mercy with a lot of experience and knowledge about surgical technicians. Pisarik plans on to continuing with similiar job shadows like the one she went on, but wants to go to some different places and meet with new people.
