Meet Na’kyla Bosworth. Na’kyla attends Oakland Tech High School in Oakland and is a student in Alameda Health System’s (AHS) HealthPATH program. HealthPATH is a workforce development initiative of AHS that prepares youth and young adults for healthcare careers.
“I am a strong voice, speaking out and not sugar-coating things.
I have a lot of family that have been murdered in Oakland, and even though I love Oakland, it has a downfall. I want to help my community and other families not go through what I have been through.
When I am at Highland Hospital, I think, “This is where they were, this might be the room where they died.” Though I am 14 years old, I interned through HEAL in the emergency room and knew that becoming an emergency nurse is the job for me. This hospital has a connection for me.
Working in the ER opens your eyes and you see what people go through that you may never have have heard or thought about. The ER nurses are smart, diligent, hard workers who put their hearts into the job and care about every single patient who walks through the door. This hospital is a loving, family-oriented hospital and a really good hospital for everyone.
HEAL has helped change my life and influence me to become the person I am and the person I want to be in the medical field. A lot of people don’t really know how fast your life can be taken from you. It has shown me that I have to live my life and embrace it, because you see people alive and well in the emergency room and on the next day they are in the morgue—you never know what’s going to happen to you.” ~Na’kyla
Through internships and other work‐based learning experiences at AHS’s network of hospitals and wellness centers, HealthPATH exposes young people to career opportunities in the healthcare field while promoting academic excellence and teaching skills for life success. HealthPATH’s ultimate goal is to cultivate a pipeline of diverse and culturally competent healthcare workers who will become the future workforce of AHS.
To learn more about Na’kyla and other HealthPATH students visit the Oakland Youth Story Bank Website.