Before they officially start high school, 35 northwest Ohio students will learn what medical school is like.
The students participating in the 13th annual CampMed program at The University of Toledo this week will receive close-up, hands-on lessons making casts, learning procedures in a medical simulation center, suturing a wound, and what sports medicine is all about.
“For students who are thinking about becoming a physician, CampMed is a great program to experience firsthand what medical school will be like as they learn from counselors who are medical students themselves,” said Kathy Vasquez, director of the UT and Ohio Area Health Education Center programs and UT associate vice president for government relations. “While the students are just going into high school, and both college and medical school might seem like a long way off, now is the time for them to realize the commitment that will be necessary and start working toward their goals.”
The two-day CampMed program will be held Thursday, June 17, and Friday, June 18, on UT’s Health Science Campus.
It is coordinated through the UT Area Health Education Center program, which along with other chapters throughout the country, strives to improve the health of individuals and communities by transforming health care through education. UT medical students serve as camp counselors, and the students also will interact with physicians and professors.
The students will begin their med school crash course Thursday morning with a “tools of the trade” session where they will learn to use blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes. Lessons will continue for two days with multiple morning and afternoon sessions that include a perioperative experience where they dress in surgical gear, including gowns, gloves and masks; look at a medical helicopter; and practice their diagnosis ability with real “patients” in a clinical skills lab.
CampMed aims to stimulate interest in the medical field for the students who will start high school as freshmen this fall. The competitive program, which began in 1998, requires students to submit a letter of recommendation, a nomination from a science or math teacher or counselor, and a personal essay to be chosen to participate.
CampMed is a scholarship program at no cost to the students, most of whom are minority, rural and from other underrepresented groups in northwest Ohio.
