Fort Worth Students Introduced to Health Care and Medical Fields at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU
Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University Holds The Second Annual "Burnett at the BLUU" Event Giving Young Students Early Exposure To Medicine
FORT WORTH – Middle school and high school students from all across Tarrant County, and even as far as West Texas, came together to get invaluable training and early exposure to medicine on TCU’s campus in early September.
This gathering of young minds is all part of a bigger plan by Ric Bonnell, M.D., Assistant Professor and Director of Service Learning at the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, to get children to consider careers in medicine.
“Many kids don’t get exposed to health care or careers in medicine until it’s almost too late,” Dr. Bonnell said.
Dr. Bonnell created a unique service learning and community engagement event called, “Burnett at the BLUU” where young students get a transformative experience alongside medical students and faculty at Burnett School of Medicine at TCU. The goal of the initiative is to establish stronger connections between the Burnett School of Medicine and the Fort Worth community.
About 200 students from Fort Worth ISD, Cristo Rey Fort Worth College Prep and Tolar ISD got hands-on experience using the cutting-edge technology, such as high-fidelity manikins, that medical students utilize as part of their training.
Aleyah Akuma, a 10th-grade student at Trimble Technical High School in Fort Worth, learned how to suture wounds and explored the human body using virtual reality with the Microsoft® HoloLens and HoloAnantomy.
“It really opened my eyes to other parts of health care,” Akuma said. “It’s good for people who are just starting.”
Dr. Bonnell said the payoff of this type of service-learning and community engagement is two-fold: Young students get exposed to careers in health care, and it also reinforces part of the mission of the medical school, which is to create Empathetic Scholars® who are life-long learners. Several medical students led simulation exercises at each station with the young students.
“Once they start in medical school, they have the responsibility to help the next generation in high school and college be inspired to go into medicine and also to teach them how to provide health care,” Dr. Bonnell said.