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As school doors open this fall across the state, local hospitals will help "adoptive schools" with creative programs ranging from cash donations to programs for exploring health careers.

"Our facility partners with the nursing schools in the area to provide extern positions, but we also partner with our local high school allied health class," said Gwen Shirley, director of education and employee health for Tri-Lakes Medical Center in Batesville. "These students shadow our staff in all departments over the period of the school year. They're with our staff two days a week and rotate through the different departments every four weeks."

Shirley said the experience allows the high school student interested in any aspect of the medical field to view firsthand what is involved in the specific area of interest. It also allows the student to understand the difficulties and stresses involved in healthcare today.

Baptist Memorial Hospital-DeSoto and Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi provide job shadowing programs and also support schools in a number of other ways including health fairs for students and teachers, career days, CPR and first aid classes, funding for nurses training and athletic training programs.

Northwest Mississippi Community College recently formed a partnership that calls for hospitals to provide comprehensive healthcare for the school's student-athletes.

"We're excited about entering into this partnership with Baptist-DeSoto, Baptist-North Mississippi and their professional staffs," said Donny Castle, Northwest athletic director. "I believe this partnership will greatly benefit our student-athletes by giving them access to high quality healthcare."

Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi also has received a $325,000 grant from the Baptist Memorial Health Care Foundation for a clinical laboratory/classroom that allows nursing students to learn and develop clinical skills in a controlled setting.

"This new lab will give Mississippi students the kind of facility that's not available to many other students," said Katie Morrissette, chief nursing officer for Baptist North Mississippi.

Starting in 2004, Baptist Memorial Health Care and North Mississippi Medical Center agreed to provide joint funding for a nursing program at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford. The programs are designed to recruit more students to the nursing profession and to make it possible to earn a bachelor of science degree in nursing at the Oxford campus.

Another healthcare provider heavily involved with local schools is Rush Health Systems in Meridian.

"In addition to our sports medicine program in all the area's schools, there's also the CPR in Schools program in which we partner with the local high schools and the American Heart Association," said Amy Ford, director of public relations for Rush Health Systems. "It's a fabulous program where students are taught CPR. Also, Rush is very involved with Meridian Community College. We even received a nationwide recognition, the Bellwether Award, for our partnership regarding continuing education."

Singing River Hospital Systems (SRHS) also has programs to recruit middle and high school aged youth into health professions. Representatives from the Jackson County hospital system do outreach into the schools and lead students to the Web site, www.gethospitalized.com, to learn more about prospective careers.

SRHS also has an active speaker's bureau and tour system that allows high school students to learn more from healthcare professionals and see specific areas of the hospitals. And students in allied health programs spend part of their second year of the program in the hospitals performing clinicals.

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Booneville recently partnered with Hills Chapel School in the Learn and Serve America K12 school based program. The program engages students in a variety of service learning activities.

"The student service activities must promote academic and personal growth and, at the same time, address the community's unmet human, educational, environmental, and public safety needs," said hospital marketing director Sergio Warren. "We also provide a free back-to-school health fair to all the schools in the county, which includes dental screening, scoliosis screening, ENT screening, hand hygiene, backpack safety, immunization shots, and blood pressure screening."

Hospitals are also working to address one of the most serious health issues facing youth in Mississippi today: obesity. King's Daughters Medical Center in Brookhaven, with assistance from a grant from BlueCross BlueShield of Mississippi's Project Fit America program, has purchased and installed fitness and playground equipment on school sites.

"This program is important in our area because childhood obesity and non-active lifestyles are still on the rise," said JoAnna Sproles, spokesperson for King's Daughters Medical Center. "Our hospital received a sizable amount — about $90,000 — which enabled us to place this program and the equipment in four area schools here in Lincoln County.

Adopt-a-school programs aren't anything new for many of the hospitals. For example, Central Mississippi Medical Center (CMMC) has been a partner with the Peeples Middle School for 25 years. Recently, CMMC donated $3,500 to the school.

Adopt-a-school partnerships can be mutually beneficial, as shown by the Rankin Medical Center and Brandon Elementary School. Rankin Medical Center helped replace the school sign and provided other help after a tornado caused damage a couple years ago. And recently students from Brandon High School helped beautify the hospital by painting a mural in the cafeteria.

Hospitals are also partnering with colleges. For example, the Biloxi Regional Medical Center continued its partnership in education with the University of Southern Mississippi, William Carey College and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College by recently giving $70,000 to each college for its nursing program.

"Our ultimate goal is to make a positive difference in nursing," said Tim Mitchell, CEO of Biloxi Regional Medical Center. "Considering the effects the national nursing shortage has had on many medical facilities, and will continue to happen, the hospital feels a great need to be a part of helping to prevent that."

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