30 Berks students complete Reading Hospital internship program

David Mekeel, Reading Eagle, Pa.
·2 min read

May 26—Reading Hospital honored a group of local high school students who spent the last eight months toiling away at the West Reading medical facility.

The hospital held a end-of-year celebration for 30 high school interns on Thursday.

Since September, the interns have been spending time working at the hospital. Each worked approximately 300 hours each in areas including nursing, occupational therapy, the Children's Health Center, podiatry, the emergency department, labor and delivery, the Post Anesthesia Care Unit, the Center for Public Health, procedure prep and recovery, plastic and reconstructive surgery, radiation oncology and genetic counseling.

The internship program is designed to enhance student's academic, professional and personal development through non-clinical practice experience within the work environment at the hospital.

Along with their work, the students were also exposed to other aspects of career development through a variety of educational workshops, including resume writing and mock interviews, financial literacy and health care career roundtables.

"Tower Health has always made health care education a top priority," Dr. Charles Barbera, Reading Hospital's president and CEO, said in a statement. "It is important to us that we are part of the conversation when it comes to tomorrow's health care providers. Through our program, we can expose students to real-world scenarios and offer them a unique hands-on learning approach all within our top-tier facility.

"We would like to express our sincerest thanks to all the departments involved in helping to make the internship program a success, as well as the participating interns for their hard work and commitment to the health of our community."

This year was the largest ever for the internship program in its nine-year history, which for the first time was open to students in all Berks school district. The students that participated were from the Conrad Weiser, Exeter, Fleetwood, Gov. Mifflin, Muhlenberg, Oley, Reading, Twin Valley and Wilson school districts.

All 30 of the students plan to attend college, with 29 pursuing degrees in health care.

Since the internship program began in 2014, 81 high school students have taken part. Of those, 10 have returned to work at Reading Hospital.