|
Exploring the ‘real world’ of medicine\
Discovery Days give secondary students a hands-on experience in the world of health science
(published in Healthcare Careers Express)
By Ellen Ashton-Haiste
|
 |
| At University of Western Ontario in 2007 (CMHF photo) |
|
Jo Jo Leung always
thought about going into a career in medicine. After all, she grew up
surrounded by it. Her dad was a family physician in a Newfoundland
outport community. “We grew up with the clinic in our house,” she says.
“So we had lab samples in the fridge and posters on the walls; and
sometimes I would go with him on house calls.”
But it was an experience in Grade 11 — attending the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame’s Discovery Days
at Newfoundland’s Memorial University — which cemented that goal for
Leung, now a third year medical student at University of Toronto,
hoping to go into surgery.
Nick Pasic, a second year
undergraduate student in health sciences at the University of Western
Ontario in London, heading for medical school and possibly a specialty
in sports medicine, also credits his Discovery Days experience at UWO
with his career choice. “Before then, I wanted to go into (medicine)
but I guess it solidified for me that I was making the right choice.”
Since 1997, when the first Discovery Day brought London Grade 11 and
12 students into the University of Western Ontario medical school labs
and classrooms for a first-hand look at the possibilities in health
care, the program has grown exponentially and expanded across the
country. This year, thousands of students will participate in the
program at nine universities in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec,
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, an increase of one over the 2008 line-up.
New on the 2009 roster is Dalhousie University in Halifax.
The one-day event allows students to get hands-on experience in two
workshops — chosen from a broad menu of a couple dozen options — plus a
keynote address by a leader in health care and a panel of professionals
discussing their career pathways and motivations.
Founded in
1994 in London, the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (CMHF) is the only
organization of its kind in Canada — and perhaps in the world —
dedicated to recognizing medical history and its contributions. Over
the years, it has inducted 71 laureates, from Charles Banting, who
conceived the idea of insulin to treat diabetes, to neurological
pioneer Dr. Wilder Graves Penfield, to modern-day heroes like Roberta
Bondar, a neurologist and the first Canadian woman to explore space
aboard the 1992 space shuttle Discovery.
It has grown not
only in honourees but also in scope and philosophy, says executive
director Janet Tufts. “Our mandate is now really two-pronged: to
recognize and honour the Canada’s medical accomplishments through the
laureates, and to educate and inspire young people.”
Discovery Days, says Dr. Carol Herbert, dean of the Schulich School of
Medicine and Dentistry at UWO and current CMHF board chair, is a major
plank in this platform and the measure of its success is its rapid
growth, with the number of events and the number of participants
increasing annually.
“We’re bringing in the best and brightest
of our high school students with an interest in health sciences and
getting them turned on, giving them a positive experience and an
introduction to what health careers could look like,” Herbert says,
adding that “the main purpose of celebrating our heroes and introducing
young people to science is to assure ourselves of leaders for the
future of human health sciences.”
“It’s a great opportunity
for students to see careers in (this field),” agrees Nick Forte, a
science teacher at London’s John Paul II Secondary School, who’s been
bringing students to Discovery Days at Western since the second year of
the event. “It connects the health sciences world with the schoolbook
knowledge and just gives students an idea of what’s out there. You
could talk about it all you want in a classroom, but when they see it,
or are in that environment, it makes a better connection.”
“They get a chance to be inspired,” says Diana Alli, from the
University of Toronto, where Discovery Days was held for the first time
in 2008. “I felt they were excited afterwards about science and it took
them back to enjoy their school life more.”
That happened
for Leung. Despite her lifetime exposure to medicine, the Discovery
Days event was her first exposure to an anatomy lab. “That was very
interesting, definitely. I don’t think I had a definite exposure to
surgery at that point. Before that I was very vague on what all of
medicine entailed and it was finally, after that point, that I knew for
sure what I wanted to do.”
Alli, who’s job title is “senior
officer, service learning/community partnerships/student life” with the
Office of Health Professions/Student Affairs at U of T’s Faculty of
Medicine, thinks this is particularly important for the at-risk and
under-represented students — such as those from black and aboriginal
communities — that she works with in various outreach programs.
“One of the needs I was very specific about was to allow at-risk kids
and under-represented students … so we made sure that every school
brought (a percentage) of students from African-Canadian or aboriginal
backgrounds,” she says.
Leung heartily agrees with this
principle, hearkening back to her peers in the rural communities of
Newfoundland. “A lot of kids, growing up in the outport areas, they
don’t think about much beyond ‘okay I’m going into forestry’ or ‘I’m
going to work for the fishery.’ They don’t stop and consider ‘maybe I
could be an audiologist or maybe I could be in speech language.’ It’s
simply because they’ve never had exposure to it. I think that’s why
Discovery Days is so important to kids in rural settings. It would be
their first and possibly only exposure to medicine or a healthcare
setting. And it really gets them thinking about what they want to do.”
And, she adds, it goes beyond Newfoundland’s borders. “A lot of Canada
is rural and it’s programs like Discovery Days that actually get kids
thinking about what they can do with their futures.”
It also
exposes them to the range of careers available, a concept that took a
quantum leap in London in 2003 when Fanshawe College partnered with UWO
and the Hall of Fame.
When Pam Skinner, dean of health
sciences and human services at Fanshawe, became aware of Discovery
Days, the majority of health-related professions being promoted were
university-based. But, she says, “if you look at 10 categories of
health human resources, six of them probably come from the college,
when you’re talking about health care. We have, as example, dental
assisting, dental hygiene, pharmacy technicians, paramedics, fitness
and health promotion, respiratory therapy, medical radiation technology
and that doesn’t include nursing.”
So Fanshawe embraced the
opportunity to become a Discovery Days partner and draws more than a
quarter of the participants to college workshops.
Tufts says
the Hall of Fame would be enthusiastic about welcoming more
partnerships with community colleges. In Manitoba, Red River College is
involved with the University of Manitoba Discovery Days, though not to
the extent that Fanshawe is in London.
But “it makes perfect sense” to include their involvement, Tufts says.
|
(Canadian Medical Hall of Fame photos)
|
|
