Submitted by UnityPoint Health — Pekin
Central Illinois high school students with an interest in the medical field have a new opportunity for hands-on education. In January of 2017, UnityPoint Health — Pekin and a group of community partners launched Training Tomorrow’s Physicians Today, a 16-week program related to gross anatomy.
The new program is a combination of dissection, classroom work, hospital tours, and take-home assignments. Presenters and instructors cover a wide array of subjects, including the brain and spinal cord, upper and lower extremities, the heart, and the abdominal region.
Area physicians and educators, including Dr. Volkan Sumer and representatives from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Peoria (UICOMP), offered the interactive program to high school students throughout the region. Hosted in UnityPoint Health — Pekin’s cadaver lab, the first-year class is comprised of 22 eager students from Pekin, Tremont, Morton, and Olympia High Schools.
“A program like this really helps high school students as they start to make their future plans,” says Dr. Michael Honan, who serves as medical director for Training Tomorrow’s Physicians Today. “These are very busy students who are choosing to be here every week. They don’t receive any credit for this program. They are just doing it because they are interested in medicine and want to learn.”
The vision for the program started more than a year ago when Dr. Honan met with Tremont High School Superintendent Jeff Hinman. The two of them were familiar with a similar program in Le Roy, Illinois, so they decided to create their own version in Pekin. Once hospital leaders made the cadaver lab available to Dr. Honan and his colleagues, the final pieces fell into place.
“The fact that our students are doing human cadaver dissection and working so closely with our medical community is great experience,” says Meghan Bagby, program coordinator and Tremont High School biology teacher. “We have a wide range of interests from our 22 students this year. Some would like to be doctors, some would like to be nurses, some are interested in veterinary science, and some are interested in the field of nutrition.”
Nutrition is the future path for Pekin High School Senior Christy Torrey. She plans to attend Illinois Central College and then the University of Illinois to pursue a career as a dietitian. Christy learned about Training Tomorrow’s Physicians Today through her Anatomy and Physiology class. To be selected she had to be recommended by her teachers and then compose an essay explaining why she would be an ideal choice for the program.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to learn in a hands-on way,” she explains. “I’ve always been interested in the medical field, so this type of experience is very important to me. We’re interacting with doctors and medical students every single week.”
Christy is happy with the new relationships she is forming with her classmates as well.
“I knew some of the students before the program started, but not all of them. I’m forming new friendships every week. Everybody in the program is very supportive.”
Christy and her fellow students meet at UnityPoint Health — Pekin every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning from January to April. Dallas Varony, a third-year medical student at UICOMP, serves as a guest presenter and helps to facilitate classroom discussion.
“I haven’t worked with a human cadaver since my first year in medical school, so this has been a great experience,” he says. “I really enjoy working with high school students. They have so much energy. This is an incredible opportunity for them and for future students.”
Plans for those future students and year two of Training Tomorrow’s Physicians Today are currently underway. The program’s leadership team is hoping to expand the program to include additional schools and more students. A secondary program that focuses on educating current medical professionals is also being considered.
“As an educator, I’m thrilled to see such a unique community program come together,” says Jeff Hinman. “To the best of our knowledge, this is one of only two such programs in the entire state. We have so many partners who play important roles to make this possible. It’s been fun!”
To learn more about Training Tomorrow’s Physicians Today, please contact Jeff Hinman at 309-925-3461 or jeff.hinman@d702.org.