JROTC, Health Academy students tour DGMC

  • Published
  • By Tech Sgt. Iesha Edwards
  • 60th Medical Support Squadron

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – On March 29, 2018, David Grant USAF Medical Center at Travis Air Force Base, California, hosted a hospital tour for 80 De Anza High School 11th and 12th grade Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and Health Academy students.

The De Anza Health Academy prepares students for health careers primarily in the patient care field and emergency medicine.

The student’s purpose for attending was, “to have a work-based learning experience that provides them the opportunity to see a working hospital,” said Fathom N.G., lead professor of the De Anza Health Academy.

The students were greeted by Lt. Col. Daniel Lamar, 60th Medical Group deputy commander.  His message to the students was that the healthcare industry is always looking for ways to make healthcare safer while encouraging the students to come up with new ideas and ways to do this through being innovative in healthcare.

“The patient has to trust that the equipment that we are using works, and not worry about if it works,” said Chief Master Sgt. Justin Helin, 60th Inpatient Operations Squadron Superintendent.

After the students were greeted, they were broken up into four teams and paired with DGMC non-commissioned officers who escorted them throughout the hospital. The stops along the way included Medical Logistics, the Aeromedical Staging Facility, Simulation Laboratory, Laboratory Department and the Hyperbaric Chamber.

The Hyperbaric Chamber was a highlight for the students. They were able to go inside the state-of-the-art chamber in which patients inhale intermittent 100 percent oxygen in chambers pressurized to greater than one atmosphere absolute.

The benefits of this treatment are increased blood flow and hyper-oxygenation to ischemic hypoxic tissue; promotes cell growth, new blood vessel formation and collagen desposition; reduces edema; helps fight infection through various enhanced leukocytic functions and reduces the toxic effects of such poisons as carbon monoxide.

With so many stops along the way, the students got an opportunity to eat lunch at the DGMC dining facility surrounded by doctors, nurses, physician assistants and laboratory technicians.

The students continued the day with an Airman’s Panel consisting of 12 Airmen from a variety of medical specialties throughout the 60th MDG. This allowed the students to ask whatever questions they had. The panel discussion ranged from the decision to enlist after high school, dormitory life and ending with why our Airmen love what they do each day in the U.S. Air Force.

The tour ended with a chat with the 60th Air Mobility Command career assistance advisor, Senior Master Sgt. Scott Piper. As a life coach, he left the students with the idea, “Pursue your passion, love what you do and do what you love.”