The following is a news release from the Lubbock Independent School District:
The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) Student National Medical Association (SNMA) will host the Doctors for a Day Mini Camp from noon to 3 p.m. Oct. 26 at the TTUHSC F. Marie Hall SimLife Center, 3601 Fourth St. room 1C425.
The mission of the camp is to inspire and inform fifth graders from the Joan Y. Ervin Elementary School to experience a day in the life of a medical student. Akwasi Opoku, SNMA president and second-year medical student, said the organization wanted to create an interactive and fun way to expose students to the field of medicine.
“This initiative provides local elementary students the opportunity to spend an afternoon at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and walk in the shoes of TTUHSC medical students,” Opoku said. “We wanted to get students thinking about medicine as early as elementary school. The Doctors for a Day Mini Camp hopefully will spark an interest in becoming a physician, especially for underserved and underrepresented minorities.”
Steven Berk, M.D., executive vice president, provost and School of Medicine dean, and TTUHSC President Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., will welcome the students. SNMA will speak about their organization, emphasize the goal of the event and educate the fifth grade students about TTUHSC programs.
Students also get hands-on experience at the TTUHSC F. Marie Hall SimLife Center. They will learn about diagnosing patients with different medical scenarios, work with ultrasound equipment to learn how physicians use them, work with simulation mannequins in the simulation lab and see an emergency simulation act where health care professionals must work efficiently together in a stressful environment to save the life of a patient.
“Our goal is to make this fun and interactive for the students,” Opoku said. “Many students never may have imagined they too can go into this profession. Our hope is that the students will walk away knowing they too can become a doctor.”
(News release from Lubbock ISD)
