Odalys Hernandez, a junior at the Metropolitan Business Academy in New Haven, has long dreamed of a career in medicine. “But when people talked about what I might do, it was always just doctors or nurses,” she said. “I knew there had to be more.”
She may have found out what “more” might be on a recent Saturday morning at Yale’s Anylyn Center at the School of Medicine: A physician’s associate.
Hernandez is one of about 40 New Haven high school students in HPREP (Health Professionals Recruitment and Exposure Program), a nine-week outreach session intended to increase the number of African American, Native American and Latino high school students entering the science and health care professions.
The students participate in small group discussions on health topics within medicine and public health with a special emphasis on health issues that affect minority communities. By the end of the program, in December, each student will have drafted and edited a college essay and will have completed a health-related research project and an oral presentation.
Yale’s program, run by student volunteers from the schools of public health, medicine and nursing and the Physician Associate Program, is part of a national initiative. This year’s topics have included preventative medicine, infectious disease, neuroscience, physician associate day, bioethics, health disparities and a day in the life of a medical student. Public health students, handled the preventative medicine discussion with faculty lectures by YSPH Assistant Professor Nicola Hawley, Ph.D., and Ruthanne Marcus, Ph.D., associate director of Community & Clinical Research, Yale School of Medicine.
“I wish I had had similar exposure to potential careers in health sciences as a high school student.” said Hawley, who described HPREP as "an incredible program.” She said the students were “phenomenal, ambitious, determined, intelligent. We would be lucky if these students were the healthcare professionals of tomorrow.”
As part of the HPREP program, Hawley helped the students begin writing their college essays. “Hearing them articulate their goals and dreams with so much passion was an eye-opening experience for me—their drive and determination, despite having dealt with some challenges in their lives, was inspiring." She called HPREP "a real stepping-stone toward strong college applications. The fact that 40 students showed up on a Saturday at 9 a.m. speaks for itself.”
Vishnu Muppala, a second-year M.P.H. student at the School of Public Health and co-director of HPREP at Yale (along with Ramsey Yusuf, a second-year medical student), said this year’s program has undergone structural changes due to the curriculum change in the medical school. This is the first year HPREP has been run during the fall semester.
“I knew early in our program, that this was an exceptional group of students even for HPREP,” said Muppala. “These students are the reason we are excited to show up each Saturday, and our volunteers are amazed by their ability to address health topics with skill and maturity. Who would expect a group of high school students to independently take on a project about mental health outcomes in LGBT populations with HIV/AIDS?”
Programs such as HPREP that encourage underrepresented groups to enter the health and medical sciences are greatly needed, said YSPH Professor Trace Kershaw, chair of the school’s diversity committee.
They [Yale students] really helped me decide what I want to do.
Kelcey Perez, New Haven high school student
“To achieve good public health we need to develop diverse leaders and practitioners that can provide variety in ideas and experiences,” said Kershaw. “This program is essential to improve diversity in the field and to grow interest in public health.”
In the recent Saturday session focused on the physician associate profession, students learned that it is a health care career that is growing in popularity because practitioners have a broad scope of practice and earn a median salary of $98,000, but the academic commitment is not as demanding as that needed for a medical degree. “After two years, you’re working,” said Mallory Grosso, a first-year PA student at Yale who co-led the session. Grosso emphasized the work-life balance it offers and the wide range of career directions.
“If I had had a program like this when I was in high school, it would have made some decisions a lot easier,” said Julie Butera, a first-year PA student and a HPREP volunteer. “I love being able to pass on to students the excitement of our profession, to give back.”
The four breakout sections at the PA session were the clinical exam, vital signs, social determinants of health and wellness and prevention.
“The goal is to be sneaky,” said Julie Butera, a first-year PA student who co-led the section on taking vital signs. “Patients can control their breathing,” she said, “so you have to pretend you’re still taking their pulse when really you’re counting the number of breaths they take.” After the students practiced taking each others’ pulses, Butera exclaimed, “You all are experts already! You’re naturals!”
In another room, students were taught how to diagnose a patient. They looked at a photograph of an elderly, shirtless, very thin man. They listened to the sound of different types of labored breathing and looked at photos of two lungs, one healthy and the other diseased.
After the session concluded, Kelcey Perez, a New Haven Academy junior, said she appreciated that the program was “broad but specific at the same time. She said she decided she wanted to become a physician associate, “because it involves a little of everything. They really helped me decide what I want to do.”
The program is hosted by the Yale School of Medicine chapters of the Student National Medical Association and the Latino Medical Student Association.