BATON ROUGE - It is never too early to learn how to help others, and some Baton Rouge pre-K students are already getting hands-on experience in the medical field with Tuesday's “Teddy Bear Clinic" at Baton Rouge General.

Throughout their day, the Park Medical Academy students followed the fictional Mr. Parker, a frequent "patient" who helps teach students important lessons about health and safety.

Last year, he broke his arm falling off a bike. In this year’s storyline, Mr. Parker burned his arm while making a cup of macaroni and cheese in the microwave. Each year, his “accidents” become teachable moments for students as they learn the basics of various fields within the healthcare system.

"We have a pharmacy, we have rehab, we have radiology, nursing, so they get to experience what it'd be like for a patient to come in the hospital for a burn," Director of Community Relations for Baton Rouge General Lauren Hebert-Henderson said.

Each student brought a teddy bear to different stations and learned to clean and bandage wounds, and even made ointment to take home from the pharmacy.

"So they get to practice whatever they're doing on the teddy bear. For one of our stations, they go to put the sleeve on what their burn would look like, so they got to put the sleeve on the teddy bear to help it," Henderson said.

This is the third year the school has partnered with Baton Rouge General to introduce young students to careers in healthcare.

"Exposing them to the possibilities, that's the premise behind the partnership with Baton Rouge General, just exposing them to opportunities. They may not want to be a doctor or a nurse, but they see all the other aspects of the hospital that they could benefit from," Park Medical Academy Principal Stephanie M. Tate said.

She said that early exposure is already making a difference.

"They go home and they want to experiment on their parents and doctor on them, and they're always surprised their vocabulary is changing, so we’re excited about that," Tate said.

Baton Rouge General hosts Park Medical Academy's "Teddy Bear Clinic" twice a year for pre-K through 2nd grade students.