Getting a job in the medical field while you are still in high school is helpful for students interested in a career in medical or veterinary occupations. Being an assistant, clerk, intern or volunteer may guide you to make the right career choice once you are in college. Not only will you gain valuable experience in the field, but you also will make friends who can give you recommendations and advice during your college education and later job search.

Nursing Home

Nursing homes often need strong high school students to assist in transporting or moving patients. Students can read to the elderly people, lead them in songs or simply walk beside them if they need help getting to the cafeteria or lounge area. Students also can answer phones, run errands for the nurses or take supplies from one building to another. This will provide valuable insight into caring for geriatric patients if that's a field of interest.

Clerk in a Doctor's Office

A job as a clerk in a medical office offers a look at other aspects of the medical profession. Students can transport medical records to a hospital or another medical facility, file records, escort patients in wheelchairs or transport lab specimens. Other duties include retrieving mail from a post office or answering phones during lunch breaks or in the summer when many people are on vacation and offices are short-handed.

Veterinary Aide

Serving as a veterinary aide is useful for students who love animals and medicine and want to pursue a career in veterinary medicine. Students can comfort pets, hold them during examinations, take dogs for walks or entertain other animals being boarded at the site. Other duties include cleaning cages, feeding and watering the animals, and helping to groom them.

Hospital Aide

An aide in a hospital will meet physicians, lab personnel, nurses and administrative people who can give her recommendations for college or graduate school. Aides can assist other personnel in transporting patients via a wheelchair or gurney and run errands for busy doctors and nurses by transporting files, records, specimens or other items to different wings of the hospital. Students can serve as help desk assistants and guide visitors to different sections of the hospital or give directions to patient rooms, the gift shop or cafeteria.

Zoo Aide

Volunteers and part-time employees are often needed at zoos, offering discussions on the animals, announcing animals before a show, assisting in animal care, grooming or cleaning up the living area while the animal is giving a show.

Animal Shelter

Animal shelters are often in need of part-time employees and volunteers who can help customers decide on the perfect pet or assist in the feeding and care of the animals.

Horse Stable

Working at a horse stable will provide valuable insight into the care necessary to keep these large animals healthy. Students can muck out the stalls, feed and water the horses, assist vets in procedures, watch the birthing of a foal or give horses their daily exercise.