Deer Park pupils try out hospital wards (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Deer Park pupils try out hospital wards

SCHOOLCHILDREN gained an insight into the medical profession when they swapped their classrooms for hospital wards this week.

Around 40 Year 10 pupils from Deer Park and Kingshill Schools took part in an NHS 'taster' day at Cirencester Hospital on Tuesday.

The event was designed to give the 14 and 15 year olds a flavour of the many different career options available in the NHS.

And pupils experienced everything from having their arms plastered to being shown basic life support methods, such as mouth-to-mouth and cardiac massage.

They were also shown the hospital's x-ray department and spent time in the Accident and Emergency (A&E) section.

Kingshill pupil Zoey Jones, 15, said: "It made us see things from the point of view of the staff, rather than as a patient. I've tried things I've never done before.

"I'd like to be a midwife or an A&E nurse."

While Alicia Clinch, 15, from Deer Park School, said: "I want to train as a physiotherapist when I leave school. This has been a really good experience - especially learning how to plaster."

Theatre sister Helen Rossiter said it was the first time the hospital had staged such an event.

She added: "We wanted to do it because it is important to encourage young people into the health service. They asked pertinent questions and were obviously interested in what was going on.

"This has been a good experience because they have seen things they wouldn't normally visit like going into theatre."