91 MedQuest Campers
4 MedQuest events this year!
NEOAHEC has more than doubled the number of students attending the in person MedQuest camps in just a few years! This expansion is part of a 3-year project funded by The Roundhouse Foundation, and this year and next, MedQuest is free to all participants thanks to the Oregon Health Authority.
In 2025, MedQuest included four events that were held in three communities across Northeastern Oregon: Hood River, La Grande, and Burns.
What does MedQuest do?
MedQuest introduces high school students to a variety of health professions, provides them with instruction on hands-on skills, and connects them with local peers and mentors. This year there were 301 individual job shadows arranged for campers as part of MedQuest! Students explored over 30 different health careers, including emergency response, health informatics, nursing, dentistry, behavioral health, and technical services.
Each educational activity is specifically curated to give students a chance to place themselves in the shoes of a healthcare professional. This year, several new activities refreshed the camps.
Diagnosis Day
Originally created by Cascades East AHEC, Diagnosis Day was redesigned to fit into MedQuest. “The vision for the day was to replace presentations about health careers with the opportunity to experience them first-hand,” said Meredith Lair, NEOAHEC Executive Director.
Students followed a simulated patient through the healthcare system via several sets of rotations, each led by a healthcare professional in a different career. While sharing details about their jobs, they taught skills like taking vitals, performing CPR, putting on and taking off personal protective equipment (PPE), effective handwashing, stopping a bleed, and responding to behavioral health-related situations.
The day ended with the Life Flight helicopter landing near the La Grande School District Wildcat Center, where the rural event was held, for campers to learn about air ambulance transfers.
Mental Health Workshop
Students learned from NEOAHEC's Dani Patton how to recognize and respond to mental health crises, practiced some self-care techniques, and learned about Narcan.
One camper shared, "I learned how important it is to take care of yourself and I learned how to better take care of those around me."
MQ Day Camp with Wallowa High School
The MQ Day Camp held in May was the first of its kind, and NEOAHEC plans to have more events like it this coming year to allow even more students the chance to participate in MedQuest. A small group of students from Wallowa High School visited EOU’s La Grande campus and spent the day with Dani Patton.
She guided students through a Look, Listen, Feel activity using our two high-fidelity manikins, hosted several presentations, including a Milton-Freewater local and AHEC Scholar who is currently in medical school, the OHSU School of Nursing, and the Early College Initiatives at EOU, and then took them on a tour through the OHSU School of Nursing skills and simulation labs on campus.
About the experience, Dani shares, “It was incredible to hear the students ask thoughtful questions, dive into hands-on skills like taking blood glucose levels on our high-fidelity mannikins, and show genuine excitement for healthcare. It’s always a privilege to guide students through experiences like this and remind them there’s a whole network of support here as they explore their futures.”
Empowering high school students
Even more important than providing these experiences to students, MedQuest shows students that they have a place in healthcare and that they have what it takes to get there.
2025 Sara Schumann Memorial MedQuest Scholarship award winner Mia Westfall of Athena shared, "This was the best week of my life. My heart has been forever touched by MedQuest, the counselors, nurses, doctors, and friends I made along the way. I’m forever grateful for this opportunity and I can’t wait to come back as a counselor as soon as I can. I’m proud of the person MedQuest has helped me become.”
