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Doctors' Diaries
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Classroom Activity
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Activity Summary
Students connect health-care professions with the matching job
descriptions to learn more about various medical careers.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
Suggested Time
One class period
Materials for Each Student
The Lesson
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Ask students what they know about careers in medicine. Have
students brainstorm all the medical jobs they know of; list
their suggestions on the board. Ask students if any of them have
ever considered, or would consider, a medical career. Briefly
discuss their responses.
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To help the class become acquainted with the range of jobs in
medicine and health care, give each student a copy of the
Who Does What? Professions
handout, which is likely to contain jobs the students have never
heard of or considered.
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Give each student a copy of the
Who Does What? Job Descriptions
handout, and have them try to match professions with correct
descriptions. Students may need to use a dictionary or the
Internet to clarify the meanings of some medical terms, such as
aneurysm, sinusitus, and catheterization.
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Once everyone is finished, have students review all the careers
on the list and choose the one that they think requires the most
training and the one that requires the least.
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Now give each student a copy of the
Who Does What? Answer Key
handout. Have a discussion with students about the jobs they
weren't familiar with. Did any career descriptions surprise
them?
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Review with students the amount of training that each career
requires. How accurate were students' predictions? Which career
surprised them most in terms of the amount of study and practice
that is involved?
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To conclude the lesson, ask students again if they would
consider a medical career, given what they've discovered about
the professions featured in the handouts. Did any students
change their minds? If so, why? If not, why not?
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As an extension, have students choose one of the medical careers
that interests them most and do additional research on that
career. What skills are required to be successful? What kind of
lifestyle does the career offer in terms of work hours,
compensation, and benefits?
The descriptions provided for students represent only one focus of
each discipline; like any other job, medical specialties include
numerous duties and responsibilities.
Medical specialists can also be found in a variety of locales, such
as doctors' offices, hospitals, academic institutions, public health
clinics, industrial plants, and relief agencies, among many others.
Medical careers also extend into the research realm, where
scientists focus on learning how the body works or finding ways to
combat disease.
The academic requirements listed are based on averages; more or less
schooling may be expected depending upon the extent to which a
person specializes in a profession or upon the state requirements
that must be met. However, on average, the career that requires the
most training is neurosurgeon (15 years); the career requiring the
least training is phlebotomist (1-2 years).
Web Sites
AMA's Health-Care Careers Directory
Lists information about health-care careers and education programs
for more than 80 fields.
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Includes information on working conditions, occupations, training,
and the employment outlook for the health-care industry.
ExploreHealthCareers.org
Provides detailed descriptions for an array of health professions.
Includes information on and links to health-related
education/training programs, financial aid resources, specialized
learning opportunities, and current issues in health care.
Wisconsin AHEC Health Careers Information Center
Offers information on a number of health careers, including how much
patient interaction and physical activity is required for each.
Books
Career Opportunities in Health Care
by Shelly Field.
Checkmark Books, 2007.
Presents information on some 80 careers; each entry features a
career profile, listing duties, salary, job prospects,
prerequisites, and a potential career ladder.
Intensive Care: A Doctor's Journal
by John F. Murray
University of California Press, May 2000.
Recounts a month's events in the intensive care unit of San
Francisco General Hospital. John Murray, chief of the Pulmonary and
Critical Care Division there, reveals the complexity and stress of a
hospital unit's day-to-day operation.
Top 100 Health-Care Careers: Your Complete Guidebook To Training
And Jobs In Allied Health, Nursing, Medicine, and More
by Saul Wischnitzer and Edith Wischnitzer.
Jist Publishing, 2005.
Lists training requirements, salary ranges, advancement
opportunities, certification and licensing procedures, and more for
each of the careers featured. Includes a list of schools that offer
training in health-care fields.
The "Who Does What?" activity aligns with the following National
Science Education Standards.
Grades 5-8
History and Nature of Science
• Science as a human endeavor
Grades 9-12
History and Nature of Science
• Science as a human endeavor
Classroom Activity Author
Developed by Educational Outreach staff. This classroom activity
originally appeared, in a slightly different form, in the companion
Teacher's Guide for NOVA's "Survivor M.D.: Tattooed Doctor" program.
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