A science classroom in Harriet Tubman Elementary School in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of D.C. was full of students after school Wednesday.
That’s because along with the elementary-school aged kids you’d expect, there were also Howard University medical and physicians assistant students in the classroom. It was all part of Howard’s “Mini-Med School,” an outreach program that brings medical students and elementary school students together.
The program is run by Dr. Mark Burke, a professor at Howard’s School of Medicine.
“It’s all about engagement,” Burke said.
And not just between Howard and D.C. Public Schools, or med students and elementary students: “It’s also about Howard University students engaging with one another,” Burke said.
“We have our PAs and our medical students and pharmacy, dental, allied health, all working together on this program. They don’t get to do that in class. … They don’t get to see each other on campus, but they do it here,” he said.
This week, the program brought students in Howard’s physicians assistants program to show the kids what PAs do and even give them some firsthand experience. Kids were taught how to take a pulse, blood pressure and temperature. They learned how to get a patient’s history and some of the important questions to ask when a person says they don’t feel well.
The program is a hit with the kids as well. Eleven-year-old Louis “loves it” when they come because he “discovers new things.”
He said he wants to be a doctor when he grows up but still isn’t sure what kind: “There’s so many doctors I can become that I don’t really know what I can be yet.”
His friend Sy said he enjoys it when the medical students come, but he’s not sure if he wants to be a doctor because he doesn’t like to see blood.
“We do really interesting activities, and we learn so much, even if we don’t know,” he said.
Howard University second-year medical student Alexis Gay is also a happy participant in the program; she likes taking science and medicine and making it more fun and accessible for the kids.
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