Health City Cayman Islands recently hosted its inaugural Healthcare Explorers Day Camp for local youth. Nineteen teenage students, aged between 12-14 years, spent the day getting to see ‘behind the scenes’ of the prestigious hospital.
“It’s important to encourage our youth, here in the Cayman Islands, to consider medicine as a career choice. At Health City, we pride ourselves on career development and continued learning and skill enhancement, so a day like the Healthcare Explorers Day Camp is very close to our hearts,” said Dr Chandy Abraham, Facility Director and Head of Medical Services and Health City.
The event followed on from the successful summer intern programme, which saw 23 college and high school seniors participate in an intensive two week internship programme.
The Healthcare Explorers Day Camp was initiated with a welcome address from Dr Irka Ebanks, a Caymanian doctor at Health City, who discussed her medical career path with the students. Following on from Dr Ebanks, the students met with Councillor Winston Connolly, who spoke to them about healthcare as a career choice and described government’s plans to assist more Caymanians in the field of medicine. The students were also treated to a Q&A session with a specialist doctor in their field of choosing, allowing them to find out more about their specific area of interest.
Programme sponsor, Gene Thompson closed out the day, thanking the students and encouraging them to continue to study hard. “These are our future doctors, so it is important to nurture their interest. As I said to the students, hopefully in the years to come, some of them will be here, practising medicine at Health City, telling other students about their career path to becoming a surgeon,” he said.
A number of students won prizes, generously donated by Cayman Turtle Farm and Dolphin Discovery, to which the programme manager, Richard Parchment graciously thanked.
The day was a huge success with the attending students and parents, so much so, that Health City are planning on making the day camp an annual event in future years.
More information on this annual event will be posted on Facebook at www.facebook.com/HealthCityCaymanIslands.