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NMU hosts Open Lab Day for high school students

MARQUETTE — High school students from around the Upper Peninsula gathered at Northern Michigan University’s campus to explore its many clinical sciences and nursing labs hands-on.

This event was the third annual Open Lab Day created by NMU School of Clinical Sciences administrative specialist Sherida Riipi. High schoolers were free to roam various laboratories in The Science Building on Northern’s campus where faculty and college students would lead them in interactive exercises.

“What better way to get them interested than to bring them to our labs,” said School of Clinical Sciences associate dean and director Shaun Thunell.

Some students were able to blood-type themselves, try out ultrasound practice machines and use equipment used for the care of bedridden patients.

Katie Gray, health occupations teacher for Ishpeming, Negaunee and Westwood schools, said this event perfectly lines up with her course’s goals: “get as much exposure to all health occupations as possible.”

Students went to radiography labs, surgical technology demonstrations, a nursing simulation lab, the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center and more.

Clinical Laboratory Sciences program director and assistant professor Martin Renaldi has taken his own students to Gray’s class to do some interactive demonstrations.

“Nobody really knows what goes on in a laboratory,” he said. “Until we actually get kids into the laboratory environment or we take the laboratory environment to them, they don’t understand what we do. Once they find out that they’re intrigued — yeah, you’re dealing with bodily fluids or dealing with blood and all, it’s kind of scary, especially post-COVID era — we inspire these kids that we actually make a difference in what we do. Our profession is 80% of the physician’s diagnosis for the patient, so that means laboratory results are really important.”

Renaldi acknowledged a common fear that gets in the way for a lot of prospective nurses and clinical science majors: trypanophobia, or the fear of needles.

Though he’s been in the field for over 30 years, Renaldi still remembers that same feeling as a student beginning his clinical sciences studies.

“I love medical technology, lab science, it’s my thing, but I couldn’t get over the fact that I would actually have to stick needles in people and draw blood and that was a hard pill to swallow,” he said. ” … we do have people that are very afraid of needles, but we encourage them to get back on the horse and try it again. Nine times out of 10, after the four-week course that we have, phlebotomy, by the fourth lab, they’re back and pretty good.”

The visiting kids got a chance to prick their fingers to find out their blood type and practice drawing blood from a dummy arm with Renaldi’s current students. Renaldi observed over the years that high schoolers are more comfortable working with college students since they’re closer in age.

He hopes to bring the students in, get them interested in health care fields, teach them and eventually give back to the local community by preparing them to work at surrounding clinics and hospitals.

“NMU has been great to us,” he added. “We’ve got a new hematology machine, brand-new chemistry machine that we got off-loaded from the health center when they didn’t need it anymore, we got all new microscopes coming next week. We are very well set for the future here.”

For more information on these programs, go to nmu.edu/clinicalsciences or nmu.edu/nursing.

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