Columbus, OH,
21
January
2016
|
20:34 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

Preparing the minds of tomorrow

Our future physicians, nurses, physical therapists and other medical experts are already in our midst.

Through partnerships with Pickerington Local School District, Ohio University and a medical college in Nashville — OhioHealth is bringing high school and college students onto our campuses to learn about healthcare up close. For us, it’s an opportunity to inspire and educate the next generation of quality medical professionals. It could also lead some of them to come here and practice.

A new level of learning in Pickerington

High school seniors in the Pickerington Local School District don’t just learn about biomedical science.

They live it.

Thanks to a new partnership between the school district and OhioHealth Pickerington Medical Campus, 38 students are taking classes on-site at the campus. The students, all seniors, enrolled in the district’s biomedical sciences program to learn about healthcare careers, conduct research, meet with experts and watch real-life medical procedures.

The program, based out of the campus’ 2,000-square-foot learning space, is equipped with technology, such as stress testing devices, a medical-grade treadmill, microscopes, smart TVs and 3D printers. Students also visit departments on campus and, as the year progresses, will complete job shadowing and internships.

“It changes the game for us,” says teacher Andy Harris. “Instead of having a healthcare provider come in and speak to our students in a classroom, now we can actually walk down the hallway and see things in action. We can see what the real healthcare world looks like.”

For Jenn Miller, MA, AT, ATC, OhioHealth’s coordinator for the program, witnessing the students’ enthusiasm has been incredible. They’re interested in anesthesiology, nursing, emergency medicine, sports medicine and surgery. Some want to conduct concussion research, others dream of curing cancer or building prosthetic limbs.

“They come up with amazing questions that baffle me every day,” she says. “They want to see so much. They want to learn. I’m so impressed with how much they know and how much they really want to use what they’re learning to change the face of healthcare.”

Rob Davies, PT, director of the OhioHealth Pickerington Medical Campus, says the partnership is also an opportunity for associates.

“Taking part in teaching the minds of future healthcare providers is a very powerful opportunity for us,” he says. “We’re excited about sharing knowledge and gaining knowledge at the same time.”

Partners in training

Our relationship with The Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine has long been a strong one. Now we’re building on that relationship by collaborating with the university’s Dublin campus to provide students with clinical training.

Offering clinical training for medical students is not unusual in itself, says Doug Knutson, MD, system vice president for academic affairs. What’s different is OhioHealth participates directly in devising how to best implement Dublin students’ clinical trainings, which begin with half-day experiences in the first year of medical school and continue on to clinical rotations in the third and fourth years.

The hope is, by having these students train at our care sites, they’ll go on to complete their residencies here and, ultimately, work for our organization.

Collaboration begins even before the clinical experiences start with our representatives assisting in the recruitment of students into the university’s medical program.

“We’re able to help choose students who are more patient-centered and will fit in well with our OhioHealth culture,” Dr. Knutson says.

Bill Burke, DO, dean of the Ohio University Dublin campus and former head of medical education at OhioHealth Doctors Hospital, says the collaboration also benefits the university.

“When you’re working with an innovative and cutting-edge institution like OhioHealth, you can take advantage of that knowledge and expertise,” says Dr. Burke. “It helps us make sure we are also innovating and that we’re producing the type of student who is going to manage healthcare in the future.”

 

“When you’re working with an innovative and cutting-edge institution like OhioHealth, you can take advantage of that knowledge and expertise. It helps us make sure we are also innovating and that we’re producing the type of student who is going to manage healthcare in the future.”
Bill Burke, DO, dean of the Ohio University Dublin campus

Summer learning

Two medical students from Meharry Medical College, one of the nation's oldest and largest historically black academic health science centers, traveled to Ohio this summer to participate in externships at our hospitals.

These externships are part of an effort to bring diverse students, especially those with Ohio roots, here to train and, eventually, to practice.

One of those students, Sterling Atkins, a second-year medical student, spent eight weeks helping conduct research on educational materials for stroke patients at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital. He also shadowed vascular neurologist William J. Hicks II, MD.

“It was really awesome,” he says. “I got to run around with Dr. Hicks whenever there was a stroke alert in the hospital. I got to see a couple of interventional radiology procedures. I got to see it really happen.”

This story was originally published in the November/December 2015 issue of UpFront, an OhioHealth associate publication.