Chanel Carter, 11, hadn't thought much about it before, but being a doctor might be cool.

She decided that after spending a week at a health careers camp at Richmond Community Hospital. She and other middle schoolers got a sense of the skill needed for neurosurgery by removing "tumors" from brains molded from gelatin, and learned to suture by practicing on store-bought pigs' feet as a substitute for human skin.

"I want to be a general surgeon," Chanel said. "I would love to look inside a human body and see what it looks like."

Health-care organizations, concerned that shortages of health-care professionals will only worsen in the decade to come, are reaching out to younger students to nurture interest.

The health-careers camps at four Bon Secours hospitals were among more than two dozen held across the state and funded in part with grants from the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association.

In a different effort, six students interested in medical and research careers spent five weeks as research interns at VCU Medical Center, which offers a number of programs to nurture youth interest in health and science careers. It wasn't a hard sell for Samay Sappal, 17, a rising high school senior whose favorite subject is biology.

"I'm definitely aiming to go along the medical path," Sappal said. "I've gotten a lot of exposure to the lab techniques that go behind finding different cures. . . . I've discovered I am more inclined to clinical work than laboratory work just because I like that patient interaction."

Health-care work-force shortages have been predicted for some time. A new report out this month suggests that there needs to be a coordinated national effort that crosses professional lines, instead of what is happening now, with nurses looking at the nursing shortage, doctors looking at the physician shortage, etc.

The report by the Association of Academic Health Centers also concludes that efforts to ameliorate shortages have been crisis-driven and that not enough attention has been paid to working conditions.

"The report suggests we are running out of time," said Dr. Sheldon Retchin, vice president of health sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University. Retchin served on a panel convened in Washington recently to discuss the report.

"You have an aging population with an enormous increase in the size of vulnerable populations, both aging and uninsured, and the work force is strained at almost every level," Retchin said.

According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs projected to grow faster than average include physical therapists, dental assistants and dental hygienists, home health aides, physician assistants, pharmacy technicians and nurses.

"Several years ago, we talked about what do we need to do as a group of health professionals," said Barbara S. Brown, a senior vice president at the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association. "The first thing was to get better information. We have done some things there. The other was to let people know about health careers. We realize some . . . youth did not know what was available to do in hospitals."

This is the sixth year the hospital association has funded the health careers camps for middle schoolers. This year's budget of $120,000 helped fund 27 camps.

Stitching up pigs' feet catches the student off guard at first, said Hester Fletcher, an operating room nurse and nurse trainer.

"The kids usually come in and go, 'Oh, gross,'" Fletcher said. "By the time they leave, they are usually so excited about what they've done, they've forgotten all about it. . . . I think we showed them that it's highly possible to do whatever your goals are."