Peconic Bay Medical Center inspires students to work in local health care systems
Students who grow up on the East End often look west for jobs, traveling to New York City or Nassau County to further their careers. Peconic Bay Medical Center hopes to inspire local students to pursue careers in the medical field and stay close to their hometown communities.
The Riverhead-based hospital and health group has made efforts to galvanize locals to look into jobs in the medical field by participating in job fairs, sharing informational presentations and hosting students at PBMC.
PBMC executive director Amy Loeb explained that there are a multitude of opportunities in hospital systems outside of practicing medicine — from marketing, to accounting, to fundraising and beyond.
“There are so many different pathways, and some of them don’t involved patients directly at all,” Ms. Loeb said. “So we definitely wanted to, first of all, open up the local community youth’s eyes to the different opportunities and get them potentially excited.”
Once they speak with professionals from the hospital at job fairs, students see the breadth of opportunities — something Ms. Loeb feels is the “most rewarding” part of their relationship with schools.
“It builds our relationship with the community,” she said. “We understand better who we’re serving when we get to know the youth of the community.”
Another facet of the hospital’s youth-outreach efforts is its invitation for students to visit PBMC and use surgical robots. During these visits, Dr. Agostino Cervone oversees the robot-enthusiasts as they unwrap a starburst with the robot.
“They have so much fun, and it’s amazing to see how facile these teenagers get with using the robot so quickly,” Ms. Loeb said. This engaging activity can help students see how their interests can translate into the medical field.
PBMC also offers volunteer opportunities for rising seniors and college students during the summer to see what the different departments in the hospital have to offer.
“We do whatever we can to connect to bring the youth in and to go to them,” Ms. Loeb said.
This relationship with schools creates a “pipeline” for students to staff East End hospitals and health care organizations in the future.
“This community is so special and so beautiful,” Ms. Loeb said. “To be able to provide for employment opportunities that allow for people to live and work in their home communities — it’s incredibly important.”
Hiring local employees is something that Ms. Loeb believes strengthens hospitals’ relationships with the patients who they are entrusted to take care of.
“It adds a bit of magic that it’s Peconic Bay Medical Center, which is [where] our local people taking care of their friends and family and loved ones, their neighbors; and that’s what makes us special,” Ms. Loeb said.
