Younger-skewing co-op programs aim to spark teen interest in health care
CBC
As layers of a digitally scanned cadaver peel away before their eyes, nervous teenage giggles and astonishment morph into curiosity and fascination — as about two dozen high schoolers lean into hands-on lab activities while visiting Toronto Metropolitan University's new School of Medicine in nearby Brampton, Ont.
Within minutes, the co-op students from Peel District School Board (PDSB) are adeptly swiping the screens of several virtual dissection tables — imagine long, table-sized computers — to rearrange the 3D models, zooming in on bones and muscles.
"You can discover where the fibula is and you can look around. You can turn the bodies," 16-year-old Yashita Singh explained in an excited rush.
"You can like go through skin … layer by layer and you can dissect them, which is really cool."
Co-op programs at health-care sites regularly enlist post-secondary students, but some are skewing younger to target high schoolers instead. The hope is to spark interest in a broader pool of teens, especially those from under-represented groups, and get more of them thinking about Canada's health-care system.
The senior years of high school are a pivotal moment when students get inspired to pursue different paths, says Gurmeet Lall, the school's director of clinical anatomy and simulation. So, when prepping for the PDSB visit, she chose interactive activities to engage them, make things relatable and hopefully get them imagine themselves back in her labs one day.
"I really wanted to have the students come in and interact with the technology," she said.
"The goal here was to kind of connect whatever they learn in the classroom — and see how we're teaching the same concepts to our medical students and what technologies we use for that."
This week's visit was part of a new PDSB-TMU co-op course called Equity in the Future of Healthcare, which has 25 seniors from five schools meeting weekly to learn about the health-care system.
They get a peek into different fields — from medicine and midwifery to public health and social work — through lectures, visits to labs and classrooms and meet-ups with TMU students. It counts both toward their high school diplomas and for TMU, if they choose to study there.
While Singh, the student, did have a prior interest in health care, the course is broadening her horizons.
"I can talk to the med school students and understand their experiences," she said. "That can help me figure out if I should go to med school or not — and honestly, I'm considering med school very much."
Haris Ahmad, who is of South Asian heritage, was among the first-year TMU medicine students Singh met.
"It can be really inspiring to see that someone who looks like you, someone who grew up similar to you — from the same culture or from a similar culture, is able to enter medicine," he said.
