At Aurora Medical Center – Sheboygan County, we are committed to inspiring the next generation of health care professionals. Inspiration often starts with creating an experience.
 
Each year, the hospital teams up with local community partners to offer creative experiences to teach young people about the wide variety of health careers that exist.
 
One example includes Aurora Medical Center – Sheboygan County’s participation in STEAMfest. This annual event, hosted by the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce, allows 4th and 5th grade students to imagine and explore career choices in fields such as science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics – which includes health care.
 
Jeanne Wiesbrock, a simulation education program manager for the north region of Advocate Health, showed kids the medical simulators used to train medical teams. She said she loves seeing the kids learn about the field and helping grow the next generation of health care workers.
 
“I love watching their eyes,” Wiesbrock said. “We were just talking about how you can see when they start listening to the baby's chest with the stethoscope, and they're listening and all of a sudden you see the change in their eyes.”
 
Wiesbrock recalled one child who saw a CPR dummy on the floor and immediately got to work pumping the chest, stopping when needed to attentively listen as the professional told him how to adjust his technique.
 
STEAMfest participation is just one way Aurora Medical Center – Sheboygan County is working to inspire students. Other programs include Explore Your Future, a program that links students to career ideas based on personality type and personal strengths, as well as annual Career Experiences and annual scholarship opportunities for students seeking careers in health care.