SIDNEY — Brodie Mitchell and Alexys Hurt sat at a table inside a cozy coffee shop just off Interstate 80, sipping specialty drinks and discussing their decisions to pursue health care careers. “It’s a very challenging career, but yet a very gratifying one,” said Mitchell, a University of Nebraska at Kearney sophomore from Cambridge in the pre-medicine program. Mitchell wants to practice family medicine with obstetrics.
Hurt plans to work in radiologic technology, one of the 20-plus pre-professional programs offered by UNK Health Sciences. UNK students Alexys Hurt and Brodie Mitchell shadowed professionals at Sidney Regional Medical Center and spent five days in the western Nebraska community. “You can go into a lot of things in health care,” the sophomore from Dannebrog said.
“It’s not just one specific career path.” Both UNK students are part of the Health Science Club and Kearney Health Opportunities Program, a collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center that provides scholarships, academic support and professional development activities for Lopers who plan to practice health care in rural communities. “Being from a small town, I know what rural hospitals do for communities,” Hurt said.
“It’s a completely different experience from larger hospitals. In a rural hospital, you can do a lot more and you build more personal connections with patients." “There’s something to be said about the camaraderie that you build in a small town,.
