Therapy Services Outreach Day
On October 18, 2025, Prairie Mountain Health hosted 46 high school and undergraduate students in the Brandon Regional Health Centre Therapy Services department. The Therapy Services Outreach Day was intended to showcase the professions of Audiology, Occupational Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, Respiratory Therapy, Physiotherapy and the Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services by having students learn and try out clinical skills.
Students cycled through eight stations where they completed activities like teaching each other to walk like different animals (preschool physiotherapy), making a finger splint or measuring each other for wheelchairs (occupational therapy), reviewing an audiological case study (audiology), teaching sign language or completing activities with ear plugs (teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing), mixing liquids to different thicknesses to evaluate swallowing (speech-language pathology), sizing up crutches and walkers to teach mobility (physiotherapy), and intubating a mannequin (respiratory therapy).
Most students were from the Prairie Mountain Health region. A few students who joined from other Manitoban health regions and one student from Saskatchewan joined the event.
Feedback from the students was very positive. One student said “The small groups of people allowed me to participate, ask questions, and understand to the best of my ability! Everyone was so lovely and so educated I loved learning!”. Many students wanted further information on training and wanted more time at the stations to keep trying out their skills.
Clinicians helping out with the event showcased their skills and had meaningful engagement with students who may become future health care professionals. Kortney Blosha, Respiratory Therapist said “This has been one of the most effective recruitment events I have ever done”. Many of the Clinicians indicated they found students were very engaged and eager to come back for further shadowing opportunities.
Due to the success of the event, the Prairie Mountain Health management team will consider hosting events like this again in the future as a way to promote awareness about the various allied health care careers. These professions offer meaningful, stable, well-paying work for students looking to become future health care professionals.
If anyone is interested in learning more about how to become a health care professional as listed above, they are welcome to reach out to [email protected] to learn more.