High school students complete clinical rotations with CMED students during camp
High school students conduct clinical procedures on one another during the CMED CHAMPS Summer Camp.
Twenty-six high school students were put in casts at Central Michigan University's College of Medicine throughout the past two days.
These students were attending a casting and suture clinic as part of a CMED's CHAMPS Summer Camp. The camp is for high school students interested in pursuing a career in the medical field.
"The camp started as a brainchild of Chris Austin and the M1 students--we just built on to it," said second-year medical student Sean Masters. "We wanted to contribute to the community by starting a summer camp for kids interested in health professions. We have six M2 students from the class of 2018 who helped put on this summer camp."
Today, six clinical rotations took place in CMED's Clinical Labs. The event was titled "Fun in the Sun," and had a theme of infections, sunburns, clinical procedures and cancers that most commonly occur during the summer.
"I'm interested in medical school and learning about how I can get into it," said Ethan West, a high school student from Saginaw. "I thought this would be a great experience. My favorite part was the casting and suture clinical because everyone got to cast."
The clinical rotations were led by second-year medical students. One of the clinical rotations on the effects of sunburns was led by Scott Brockman from Grand Rapids. Brockman highlighted the importance of the camp in exposing prospective future students early.
"It's so important to get involved early on. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in high school," Brockman said. "In college I thought about engineering, and my mom suggested going to medical school. Here I am today in medical school."
The high school students were split into groups of four or five and the medical students served as mentors during the three-day camp.
Amanda Shoemaker, a second-year medical student, said she wanted to build a welcoming and open environment for her group.
"I wanted to make them comfortable," Shoemaker said. "A lot of these students are first generation college students, so they don't always have someone to answer these questions for them. I am a first generation medical student so I can relate to them with that. I wanted to be someone who excites them about realistically getting into this field."
The goal of the summer camp was to get high school students excited about college. Masters said the goals of the summer camp were met.
"I think the students had a great response to the interactive sessions like casting," Masters said. "I know a lot of the students enjoyed learning about the clinical instruments. There were some students who talked to me about medical topics the sessions didn't even touch base on. You can really see the excitement in them build over the last three days."
