Corey Jeffers

Registered nurse, Highland Hospital Intensive Care Unit | HealthPATH mentor

HEAL gives high school students an opportunity to decide if health care is something they want to get involved in. It’s like buying clothes. Until you’ve actually tried it on, you don’t really know if you like it. I think kids need to be exposed to certain things just so they can say, “This is for me” or “This is not for me.”

I had the opportunity to do this in high school. And that meant so much to me. I was able to shadow nurses, and I determined that I wanted to be a nurse and make a difference.

I look at being a mentor in HEAL as a golden opportunity to give back the same thing that was given to me in high school. I saw how it shaped my future, so I just wanted to be that positive, informative person for the kids.

I like students to know that being in health care, we don’t necessarily do it for money. We do it because we want to see the patients get better. Being good at what you do can make a difference in somebody’s life, emotionally, physically.

Everybody deserves your best. It doesn’t matter what kind of health insurance you got, what race you are, what religion. When a person comes through the door and they’re intubated, we don’t know what your zip code is, what your area code is, who you voted for, or how much money you make. The only thing we want is to see you get better.

The students get to see that. They get to see teamwork. And 9 times out of 10, those students say, “I want to be a part of this when I grow up. I want to work here.”