Elementary School Career Awareness: A Visit to a Hospital

A well-conceived field trip to a hospital serves several important purposes for elementary school students: (1) it acquaints students with local places of employment while demonstrating the essentiality of work and the need for employees to work together to provide valuable community services, and (2) it helps to reduce the level of anxiety children generally associate with their own hospitalization. In order for a field trip to be something more than a relatively meaningless out-of-school frill, it needs to be carefully planned and carried out. This article offers numerous practical suggestions for getting ready for the hospital visit, the tour itself, and ways to follow-up on the visit, thereby maximizing the educational value of the field trip for elementary age students.