>> For KET.

I'm Emily Sisk.

>> Students from high schools in central Kentucky can explore careers in the medical field at the University of Kentucky.

UK Careers in Health Care Internship program allows students to spend time with clinical teams all year round.

>> So what we've realized is that students know they want a career in health care, but they're not necessarily sure what exactly what they want to do.

So this is all about early career exploration, helping them to know what they enjoy, maybe what they don't enjoy, and just to explore their their interests and to find out the myriad of professional opportunities that are out there.

>> We have a variety of rotations every semester.

Sometimes you have a physician or I've had nurses, nurse practitioners, but all areas of the field, and essentially they will just take you through their day and you get to just shadow and look and see what being in that field is like.

Working in that area of medicine is like, and how they operate in their career.

>> I started in the cardiovascular ICU.

I followed a PT around there.

She was amazing.

She kind of explained to me how it all works applying to PT school what her regular day looks like.

I also followed outpatient PT, and that was a really cool opportunity to see what a slower PT environment works like compared to the ICU, where it's more critical wire management outpatient is more getting to know the person you form a relationship, and it was just really cool to be able to understand now as a high school student, what that looks like.

>> There's so many interdisciplinary needs, so many different kind of facets for students to be exposed of, and this is an outstanding opportunity for young individuals to to see the way healthcare is expanding for the future as well, and how many options they have to exercise, any interest they have within healthcare itself.

>> One of the most interesting things that I think was unintended or unexpected, I guess I should say, were the soft skills the students are learning from watching professionals interact with our patients.

They're learning just how to speak to a patient.

They're learning the importance of listening and empathy and encouragement.

>> My most favorite rotation has definitely been outpatient psychiatry.

The reason being is I've known for a while that I wanted to be a clinical psychiatrist, and doing this internship and being able to experience what the career is like during that rotation just really reaffirmed how much I can see myself in that career.

>> It's really cool to be able to kind of experience what those healthcare workers.

I mean, I'm getting on the bus with nurses from ages 20 to 60, and it's just like, kind of cool to see what their day looks like being UK such a more fulfilling place than sitting in a classroom.

And I think it's such a more important way for people to learn.

And I think that's just as valuable as money.

>> This is long overdue for the state of Kentucky, and I think the exposure for high school students to look at the demands of healthcare and the needs for healthcare is an untapped resource that will really.

Help fill a void for healthcare in Kentucky.

>> Ten students participate in the program twice a week.