Organizers of the “Day in the Life of an OB-GYN” event for local high school students hope it will become a catalyst for inspiring young people to pursue future careers in STEM.
Organized by the UMass Chan Medical School Collaborative in Health Equity and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, with support from a generous donation from the Schwartz Charitable Foundation, the event on July 22 invited students from the Eureka! program at Girls Inc. to shadow OB-GYNs.
“The OB-GYN department is about care of people with a uterus or without a uterus, or the ability to reproduce. That spans pregnancy, gynecologic issues, reproductive health, heart health and many different areas. Not everybody wants to be a gynecologic oncologist or an OB-GYN. We would also be very happy for somebody to be a nurse practitioner, an ultrasound tech or an embryologist. There are many ways to serve, and representation is needed in all of them,” said event organizer Cherise Hamblin, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, director of URiM workforce development and capacity building for the Collaborative in Health Equity and medical director of the UMass Memorial Medical Center Doula Program.
Hamblin said the aim of the event was to provide inspiration, exposure and support and she hopes to work with UMass Chan colleagues to build a framework for other departments to hold similar events.
“The overall goal is connecting people who've been excluded from health careers to departments and to create a problem-solving team,” said Hamblin.
At the OB-GYN event, participants said they learned about the different types of jobs in the medical field and why diversity is important. The girls engaged in an interactive panel discussion with doctors, nurse practitioners, medical students and residents, and participated in rotating stations where they learned about antepartum testing, various labor and delivery procedures and blood loss estimation.
In previous years, residents from the Department of Surgery ran a “Day in the Life of a Surgeon,” for college students from across Massachusetts to give students underrepresented in medicine the opportunity to learn about the surgical field, gain exposure to specialties and seek mentorship and guidance in pursuing this field. Those events were organized by residents Olajumoke Megafu, MD; Emily Fan, MD; and Sudie-Ann Robinson, MD, with the support of Muriel Cleary, MD, MHS, assistant professor of surgery.
Hamblin hopes working with colleagues across the institution on shadowing opportunities will captivate young students into STEM professions.
Related media coverage:
Telegram & Gazette
UMass Chan, Girls Inc. let high schoolers experience a day in the life of an OB-GYN
Spectrum News 1
A Day in the Life program gives students an inside look at health care careers
