Healthcare Projects for High School Students

Healthcare is currently one of the fastest growing fields in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Healthcare professionals include medical doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, occupational therapists, psychologists, epidemiologists, community health workers, athletic trainers, medical lab technicians, and many more. 

Growing numbers of high school students are expressing interest in exploring healthcare careers and are eager to gain early exposure to the field. However, for patient safety, healthcare providers must complete advanced training before they can actually practice. That means that interested students must go above and beyond, and be a little bit creative, if they want to gain valuable exposure and experience with healthcare occupations.

This article is meant to showcase meaningful healthcare project ideas and strategies for students to gain hands-on healthcare experience, build essential life skills, and strengthen their college and career pathways.

Why Healthcare Projects Matter in High School

Students interested in medical and health sciences are strongly recommended to explore related projects during their high school careers. Doing so empowers students to gain early exposure to professional topics, which can help them clarify their career goals and provide valuable context for decision-making (e.g. about where to attend college or university or what to major in). Completing a healthcare-related project as a high school student provides excellent opportunities to explore and deepen academic interests and passions. It also promotes building versatile soft skills such as:

• Communication

• Empathy

• Problem-solving

• Teamwork

• Time management

• and more

Finally, successful healthcare projects can strengthen college applications and help students build their résumés with unique experiences that set them apart from other candidates.

Common Challenges in Starting Healthcare Projects for High School Students

For many students, getting the ball rolling on a healthcare project is actually one of the biggest hurdles to overcome. The first issue is that high schoolers typically have extremely limited access to medical labs and clinics. These limitations make it necessary for students to utilize the tools and resources that they can access to the absolute maximum. Secondly, many high schoolers struggle to find qualified mentors in healthcare who have both the time and the dedication to guide them in the right direction. Not having access to medical mentors can make it feel impossible to identify potential projects and to determine whether the scope of a project idea is feasible and meaningful — not to mention to successfully complete the project.

Limited time is another challenge that high schoolers encounter when trying to get their healthcare projects off the ground. High schoolers are busy, often balancing heavy academic demands with a range of athletic and extracurricular activities; finding the time to work on another project is not always as simple as it sounds. Finally, when it comes to healthcare projects, high schoolers might be intimidated by potential ethical or safety considerations. Learning how to carefully navigate scientific ethics and safety requirements takes experience and training and can feel insurmountable without input from an experienced mentor.

Types of Healthcare Projects for High School Students

Community health awareness campaigns

The goal of this type of healthcare-related project is to provide educational resources while promoting strategies for physical and mental wellbeing throughout your community. Nutrition, mental health, hygiene, disease prevention, and allergy awareness are just a few of the many possible focus areas. Choose a health-related subject that you are interested in and passionate about! Strategies for community health awareness campaigns can include:

• Creating and sharing social media content

• Designing and distributing posters and flyers

• Delivering presentations in school assemblies

Students who successfully complete a community health awareness campaign build strong communication, collaboration, and leadership skills. To broaden your project’s impact, consider working alongside your school administration or local health office. 

First aid and CPR training workshops

Peer-to-peer workshops on first aid can provide participants with important skills on choking treatment, wound care, emergency preparedness, and more. Student leaders can partner with school nurses, local agencies, or American Red Cross chapters to organize and help lead the sessions.

CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is an emergency technique involving chest compressions and artificial ventilation, and is used when a person’s heartbeat or breathing stops. In these situations, knowing how to perform CPR can save lives. High school students can gain certification in CPR and co-organize workshops in their school or community. If they are 16 or older, then students can also become certified CPR instructors through the Red Cross or American Heart Association and then teach CPR classes directly on their own.

Public health research projects on local issues

Public health is an interdisciplinary field whose goal is to keep a public group free from disease. Students who are interested in public health can work with local officials to address concerns specific to their communities. Possible topics can include:

• Air quality and pollution

• Water quality and safety

• Light pollution 

• Noise pollution (e.g. from large highways)

• Heat or drought impacts

• Substance abuse and mental health problems

• Access to healthcare (e.g. proximity to care or language barriers)

Students can start by gathering data on their chosen subject through surveys, environmental testing, or by collaborating with local offices. They can then analyze that data to extract meaningful insights and valuable recommendations to share with members of their communities.

Volunteering at hospitals, clinics, or nonprofits

High school students interested in healthcare careers can apply to volunteer in certain healthcare settings. Simply being immersed in these environments and interacting with others on a daily basis can help students understand how healthcare and medical systems work. Additionally, students will build important skills like communication, professionalism, and empathy, all of which are crucial in healthcare. Student volunteers can provide important support for administrative tasks, patient services, outreach to underserved groups, and more.

Data analysis projects related to health trends

U.S. federal agencies make some datasets publicly available for anyone to access. Working with data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or the U.S. Geological Survey, students can apply their statistics skills to analyze years of information related to public health. They can then use their analyses to visualize trends over the past decade (for example), draw meaningful conclusions, and communicate those conclusions through reports or even an interactive website.

Shadowing or mentorship with healthcare professionals

Having a great mentor is key for aspiring healthcare professionals. “Career shadowing” is when a student comes along with their mentor to observe their clinical care, administrative meetings, lab work, etc. in order to better understand their role on a day-to-day basis. High school students can shadow professionals in most healthcare occupations, but certain settings and activities may require students to be over 16 years old and to request and receive official permission from the facility’s administration. 

Students can also work with a mentor to help guide them on one of the types of projects described above.

How to Design a Successful Healthcare Project

The first step for any high school student to design a successful healthcare project is to identify a personal interest or community need. For instance, you may have had a personal experience with health or the healthcare system that could translate into a project. Alternatively, maybe you’ve noticed a particular, health-related concern or need in your community that you could use this project to address. Having a clear, driving stimulus is helpful for maintaining direction and motivation throughout the ups and downs of this sort of project.

Next, reach out to potential mentors for guidance. Healthcare is always collaborative; especially when working on a project as a high schooler, it’s important that you team up with experienced healthcare professionals, teachers, and/or researchers as early as possible.

Third, you’ll want to define clear goals and measurable outcomes. With your mentor, list at least three specific objectives that you want to accomplish with your healthcare project. Think ahead to when the project will be finished: what are the tangible, measurable results that you can point to and say, “Here’s what I did, and here’s why it’s important.”

While working on the project, it’s essential to make sure you’re using reliable sources for your research. For example, if using public datasets, make sure they are from a trusted and verified agency or website. This is also something your mentor can help with.

Finally, create a timeline and track your progress. Time management is an important soft skill for researchers and professionals across all industries, but it’s especially critical in healthcare settings. Building and sticking to a schedule will help you stay on top of the project and finish it on time; it will also build time management skills that will remain valuable throughout your healthcare career.

Showcasing Healthcare Projects for College and Careers

Once you’ve finished your healthcare project, it’s time to show it off! Showcasing your work demonstrates your technical abilities and soft skills to colleges and employers. First, aim to present and share your findings. This could take the form of a research article, a report, a portfolio, a website, or a verbal presentation. Don’t forget that you can also enter your work in one or more high school medical competitions. Next, be sure to highlight the impact of your project on résumés and applications: underscore the value of the outcome and connect the project to your own long-term academic and/or professional goals. 

Finally, remember to reflect personally on the lessons you learned from the project. Did it unfold as you expected it to? What did you learn from the project about the healthcare field? How did it inform your goals for the future? The answers to these questions could shape your next steps.

Building Long-Term Skills Through Healthcare Projects

Completing a real-world healthcare project as a high school student builds long term soft skills like communication, teamwork, leadership, empathy, adaptability, and problem solving, as well as technical abilities like data collection, statistics, and environmental testing. While building real-world skills and hands-on experience, students also get to explore the many interdisciplinary connections between science, technology, and health. Furthermore, high school projects in healthcare can act as launchpads, setting students on trajectories towards advanced studies in medicine or public health.

Conclusion: Start Your Healthcare Journey with Polygence

Structured healthcare projects give high school students a headstart on exploring medical and health fields, empowering future healthcare professionals to build their confidence and hone the essential skills for success down the road. Through Polygence’s Research Mentorship Program, students who are interested in healthcare are paired with experienced healthcare and medical mentors who guide them throughout every stage of the project from design to execution to showcasing. Topics can range from public health research to medical technology.

Polygence also offers Work Lab, an exciting new way to intern at real companies and gain hands-on working experience. Participants in Work Lab recently collaborated with real health clinic directors to uncover insights about the tools they use and to build new tools that improved access for underserved communities.

Additionally, Polygence Pods are 6-week courses that offer beginner-friendly curricula on topics like research and statistics, precision medicine, lab-grown organs and tissues, genetics in healthcare, and more.

Polygence is your pathway to discover, create, and showcase healthcare projects with real-world impact. Apply online.