Student Doctors Inspire Future Medical Students

While the next generation of healthcare providers train at RVU, they’re also inspiring future medical students by hosting events on campus: Mini Med School Day and a Medical School Immersion Field Trip (MC2).

Mini Med School: Inspired by his time in Chicago with Teach for America, Joseph Nathanson, OMS II, helped spearhead the Mini Med School Day program at RVU with classmate Jessica McArthur, OMS II (also a Teach for America graduate). Mini Med School Day—which will continue with the Class of 2023 in the fall—featured a suture lab (using a frozen banana), ultrasound lab, an airway management and emergency triage activity, and one-on-one chats between the student doctors and middle and high school students about their journey to and experiences in medical school.

“[Mini Med School Day] has brought me my most fun and rewarding moments in my time at medical school,” said SD Nathanson. “What is better than watching angsty teens who are too cool for school light up with amazement the first time they find a beating heart on an ultrasound or hold a cadaver’s brain?”

Over fifty student doctors assisted with the program and close to one hundred middle and high school students participated. As for the program’s influence on him, SD Nathanson said “[It] has allowed me to expand on why I want to work in underserved communities in my medical career.”

MC2: The Student National Medical Association partnered with the Medical Career Collaborative, a program through Children’s Hospital of Colorado and Denver Health, to host sixty underrepresented high school students (who want to pursue careers in healthcare) on campus in February.

At RVU, student doctors and physician assistant students engaged the high schoolers in several labs and workshops: anatomy, suturing, ultrasound and EKG, airway management, osteopathic principles and practice, and a special panel and mentoring opportunity. Over 90 COM and PA students volunteered at the event, which featured the theme of “Diversifying Medicine.”

At the end of the day, the high schoolers celebrated with a White Coat Ceremony, where they received embroidered lab coats to keep for future laboratory courses.