BILLINGS — Emily Johnson met lots of new people Friday, and asked lots of questions.
"What does the day-to-day look like?"
"Do you guys have to get a special degree?"
"And this is your email to contact?"
It’s exactly the kind of day the Billings Senior student was hoping for.
"I was just going along for the ride," Johnson said. "I didn't really know what to expect, but I really like what I see. I like what I’m hearing."
Johnson and her classmates from the Billings Career Center med careers program rotated around about 40 medical booths at MSU Billings during the third annual Careers in Healthcare Student Summit. The favorites are always ones that have props.
Johnson tried her hands at injecting an air bubble from a needle at the medical assistant booth, intubating a patient at the EMT booth and testing the cleanliness of surfaces like hands at the St. Vincent Healthcare booth. To be sterilized, she needed her reading to be below 250 - the 3,095 reading was in line with just about all the rest of the "failures."
But Johnson didn’t dwell. She instead made her way upstairs to the demonstration she waiting for: the surgical technology table.
"They’re alongside everything that's happening," Johnson said. "I like seeing the bones, the muscles. I think it’s very interesting."
Johnson is leaning toward a career in orthopedics for now, maybe even in her hometown.
"A lot stay in our Billings community which has been neat to see," said medical careers director Katie Meier. "A lot of that comes from seeing that investment from the colleges, from the community partners."
Meier loves the event, but Monday will be even better.
"I love coming back with students in the classroom and hearing, 'Oh man, I thought I wanted to do this, but at that table, I met someone doing a career I didn't even know existed."
"When I go home tonight, I’m going to dig through and... see what I have," Johnson said of her next steps. "I’ll text people, email people, call people that I want to know more about."
That’s a lot of calls.
