Day camp tries to introduce minorities to health care
Camp for high school students targets under-represented groups
This isn’t your usual day camp. Here, young people do simulation suturing and blood drawing, and try an ultrasound machine on a real human being.
The camp is called Explore! Careers in Health Camp, and it’s part of the McGill University medicine faculty’s effort to introduce high school students from under-represented groups to the health profession.
“The student body is already quite diverse, but there are sectors that are under-represented — primarily First Nations, black students, people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and learners from rural areas of Quebec,” said Sameer Zuberi, the diversity and engagement officer at the McGill faculty of medicine’s Social Accountability and Community Engagement Office.
The three-day, student-led, bilingual camp, which ended on Wednesday, helps students learn about medicine, nursing, dentistry, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language therapy, genetics and pharmacology.
Forty-four students, age 14 to 17 and in Grades nine to 11, took part in the camp, which started in 2009.
“One of my dreams is to study at McGill in dentistry,” said Nima Mehdy Zadeh, 15, a student at École secondaire Paul- Gérin-Lajoie-d’Outremont. “When the counsellor at school told us about this camp, I really wanted to take part. It’s been really fun. The counsellors are approximately the same age as us so it’s pretty cool.”
He said the camp has also got him interested in other fields, including physical therapy.
Camp organizers work with high school guidance counsellors. The camp selects students based on a letter they submit in which they explain why they want to take part, said Amanda Try, the co-director of the camp.
The camp strives for a diverse group made up of students from various ethnic origins and linguistic groups and from different parts of the Montreal region. This year, three students from rural areas are taking part, said Try, who is entering her second year in medicine at McGill.
“They’re students who are really inspired by science, who are really motivated,” she said. “The camp isn’t just a medicine camp; we try to show them things they maybe have never heard about. Students are already motivated, and this will motivate them even more.”
Most of the sessions are led by current McGill students in healthcare fields, though faculty members also help out, Try said.
“It’s very hands-on,” she said. “On Tuesday, we were at the simulation centre. We did suturing, ultrasound, blood drawing. We try to stay away from the lectures. We really try to show them something that is cool and that they can remember and be really excited about.”
Aaliyah Dawes Wilson, 17, took part in the camp last year and returned this summer as a junior counsellor.
“It was really informative; we got to see all the different types of professions in the medical field and how med students deal with it,” said Dawes Wilson, who will be starting at Vanier College in August in a program that combines social science and science.
Dawes Wilson, who wants to be an anesthesiologist, said the camp helped her decide on her future.
It’s important that health-care professionals hail from diverse communities, Zuberi said.
“For example, there’s been a historic mistrust of aboriginal people towards health-care professionals and for just cause because of historic mistreatment by health-care professionals within Canada toward First Nations people,” he said. “If you see yourself reflected within a profession then you’ll more readily seek services from that profession.”
The students, who stay in a campus residence for two nights, do not pay for the camp, which is financed by the McGill faculty of medicine to the tune of about $17,000.