Girls Go Med Brings High Schoolers to Campus

Forty-four high school girls traveled from all over Ohio to Rootstown recently to participate in Girls Go Med Day – a day dedicated to enriching the young women’s knowledge of the health care field and various professions within it, and giving them the opportunity to interact with 23 College of Medicine students on the NEOMED campus.

The event started off with keynote speaker Andrea Sikon, M.D., FACP. Dr. Sikon is the chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and Geriatrics within the Medicine Institute as well as the director of the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Excellence in Coaching and Mentoring. She shared her knowledge and wisdom with the young girls, gearing them up for the rest of the day.

 

Hands-On Experience

Following the keynote speaker, the students headed toward NEOMED’s Wasson Center for Clinical Skills Training, Assessment and Scholarship, where they interacted with 22 NEOMED students. There, they learned about differences in heart and lung sounds; how to elicit a reflex on a patient; how to take a history of present illness; how to perform an exam of the head, eyes, ears, nose and throat (also known as a HEENT exam); and how to suture (perform stitches). After a brief lunch period, the young women learned about various organ systems and their functions in the Multidisciplinary Laboratories, led by Dana Peterson, Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology. The students had the opportunity to interact with various organ specimens, including a heart, GI tract, lungs and brain. They then learned how to take a blood pressure reading, with Paul Lecat, M.D. (professor of internal medicine, pediatrics, and family and community medicine) demonstrating proper technique and differences in readings.

 

Student Interaction

The day ended with a panel of first- and second-year College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy students talking about their journey into their respective fields, their experiences in college, and how the young women can pursue their own dreams and the opportunities presented that day. Each of the 44 girls was awarded with a certificate of completion.  The day was filled with fun learning activities for those aspiring to one day be in the health care field.

 

Geetika Srivastava, a first-year College of Medicine student, contributed this report.