Senior Meghan McDowell shadows a nurse at Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital. The nurse questions a patient about their health. How do you feel? Do you feel like your sinuses are clogged? Can you stick your tongue out? Answers from the ill patient are running through McDowell’s mind as the senior eagerly takes notes and makes her own personal prediction of the patient’s condition. This is just another day for McDowell, a Clinical Rotation student.

“Clinical Rotation is a really cool class, because I’m interested in pursuing a career in the medical field,” said McDowell.

Clinical Rotation is a class offered at Tompkins that allows seniors to shadow doctors, nurses or people in various departments of area hospitals, community health centers and medical offices. The students are able to interact with patients, and gain knowledge from their experiences.

“The class pushes me into the real world, and gives me a glimpse of what I’ll possibly be majoring in in college,” said McDowell.

Clinical Rotation allows students to apply their knowledge from the prerequisite courses, Principles of Health Science and Health Science 1, in the medical field. Many students who are considering becoming a doctor or nurse take the course. It gives the seniors the opportunity to decide if they want to major in medicine, or work in the medical field.

“The students who take the course are very mature and must maintain a level of professionalism when they’re shadowing medical professionals,” said the Health Science Technology teacher, Julianne Ruopp.

The students must be trained, aware and observant when interacting in the Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital and long term care facility, Grace Care Center. The students will journal their thoughts and answer/write their own questions from their experiences in medical offices. Clinical Rotations and the prerequisite courses, Principles of Health Science and Health Science 1, entail rigorous coursework and multiple quizzes and tests that will prepare the students for careers in the medical field.

“The seniors taking clinical rotation don’t have senioritis,” said Ruopp.