Center for Rural Health hosts U.P. Future Health Leaders Camp at Northern
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"Half the sessions are health education topics, like nutrition, physical activity, mental health and wellbeing," said Anna Christiensen, Assistant Director of the NMU Center for Rural Health. "The other half of the sessions are opportunities to explore health care careers, like surgical technology, clinical lab sciences, osteopathic medicine, athletic training, exercise science ... you name it."
The sessions are engaging, with students getting to directly participate in activities like eye dissection and osteopathic manipulative medicine.
"We focus very heavily on hands-on, interactive experiences, so (students) can get a sample of what careers look like," said Christiensen.
The idea is to get students invested in local health care communities, so that when they are looking for a place to practice once they're done with school, they keep the U.P. in mind.
"We are in a healthcare professional shortage area," said Christiensen. "We desperately need healthcare providers of all varieties here ... (if) you get (students) interested, they feel a close connection to their hometown. And then they come back with all the skills to serve."
This is the second year that the NMU Center for Rural Health is hosting the camp, but the first year that they are collaborating with the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine. MSU COM has been hosting the OsteoChamps camp since 2000, including a more recent OsteoChamps U.P. camp, which similarly seeks to foster interest in the health care field.
The partnership "got started last summer or early fall, when both camps or both organizations were thinking about how we can provide health care interest for high school students in the U.P.," said Gerica Lee, Director of Pathway Programs with MSU COM.
"We hatched a plan to work together to build this program and integrate more physicians and medicine into this area, while thinking about how we can put a little bit of added osteopathic flair into the program itself."
MSU COM has been able to help the camp build connections with the hospital, including a visit to the hospital, exploring caregiver mobile units and participation in osteopathic manipulative medicine and suturing clinics.
The camp focuses on bringing in healthcare professionals from the community, and sources counselors from NMU's health care and pre-health care programs.
"I really enjoyed it last year, so I was excited to come back," said camp counselor Noah, who is a recent Northern grad looking to pursue dentistry. "It's a great experience working with the students for a week."
"A lot of the students come in with a career in mind they might have seen on TV or something," said camp counselor Ben, who is a Northern student who was recently accepted into medical school. "Then they see all of the different careers practically and in action, and a lot of them didn't even know that these careers existed."
"I've always been interested in the sciences, and I've always been really good at it," said Sierra, a student from Gwinn participating in the camp. "I never want to do something that I consider boring. I also love playing I-Spy, and so I want to do radiology -- looking at anatomy and finding things out and helping people with their problems.
"We got to learn about radiography this week, which is the taking of x-rays. And that just made me more interested in radiology, because it’s the step before it."
"I like having a more hands-on job, and I want to go into nursing," said Neveah, also a student from Gwinn. "With nursing, there's a lot of different things I'm going to be doing every day.
"I liked the forensic science lab, and we also did a nursing one, too. I like learning about pediatric nursing, and I like forensic science just because of how broad forensic science can go."
Both students said that they were interested in coming back to practice in the U.P.
"You need to see what the benefits and strengths are to (practicing medicine) in a rural community, and then what the challenges are, and how they can be creatively overcome," said Christiensen. "(Campers) are meeting professionals actively doing that, which I think can be really exciting.
"And they're seeing people who grew up here or went to school here or have really close ties. They have a lot of investment in the area, and some of them went to the same high schools as these kids are going to, so they know what it’s like to walk that path.
"It's just getting a broader exposure to people who understand the context that they're growing up in."
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.