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More than 450 students from 29 high schools interacted with doctors and dentists, nurses and pharmacists, and other health care professionals during the Health Center’s eighth annual Clinical Career Day April 1.

The Food Court and academic lobby were home to two dozen tables offering discussions and demonstrations of various career paths in health care, such as nursing, pharmacy, paramedics, neonatal intensive care, social work, and clinical engineering.

Following that, the students broke into smaller groups for a series of classroom workshops on topics they registered for in advance. New topics this year included wound care, gross anatomy, ophthalmology, podiatry, and forensic medicine.

“Providing young people with quality information and caring role models early on is critical for the development of a diverse, well-trained workforce,” says Dr. Bruce Gould, associate dean for primary care and CT AHEC director.

Clinical Career day is the work of the Connecticut Area Health Education Consortium (CT AHEC) and the Department of Human Resources, intending to provide secondary school students with information about health careers.