Wenatchee youth as young as nine years old were given the opportunity to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year in an unusual way—dissecting sheep hearts.
Led by an Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine student and faculty member based in Tri-Cities, young learners took part in a hands-on experience at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center to expand their science knowledge and gain exposure to health care careers.
Fourth-year medical student Chantelle Roberts assisted community faculty member Catherine (Cate) Straub, MD, by proctoring the dissection lab. Roberts was completing her sub-internship, a required clinical experience, with Dr. Straub and her team of surgeons at Confluence Health in Wenatchee.
Before medical school, Roberts served as a family medicine physician assistant for the U.S. Public Health Service. She plans to return to rural Washington state after her rural surgical residency to keep helping people in communities like Chelan county, where access to medical care is a persistent challenge.
Roberts matched into a highly-acclaimed urology residency program at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania last month—an accomplishment considering nearly 25% of candidates did not match, according to the Society of American Urologists.
Kenneth Berger, JD, MD, who has served as faculty lead for urology since the college’s inception, has been Roberts’ mentor over the course of her journey in the MD program. Dr. Berger, also a member of the faculty in Tri-Cities, practices urologic surgery and serves as the chief medical officer at Tri-State Health in rural Clarkston, Washington. He noted he would be thrilled to hire Roberts after her training, delivering on the college’s mission to train more doctors to serving Washington communities.
Events like this one—a hands-on lab which inspire local youth to consider a career in health care—are vital to improving rural health outcomes in Washington state, notes Tri-Cities surgeon and Vice Chair for Surgery Anjali Kumar, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCRS. Research from the National Institute of Health has shown that middle school (grades 5–8) is considered an ideal time to influence students toward health care careers. It is a critical period for identity formation, allowing students to explore passions before high school pressures.
Introducing options early helps bridge STEM knowledge gaps and recruit students from a variety of backgrounds into health care. NIH research also shows that health care students with rural backgrounds are roughly twice as likely to return to and practice in a rural setting compared to their urban-raised peers. Their upbringing and rural training experiences are the strongest predictors for long-term rural retention.
At the lab, Dr. Straub figured she’d be teaching kids about anatomy and physiology. The children were engaged and profound.
“Why do we have hearts?” Straub asked. A little boy replied, “Without a heart, we won’t know how to love.”