Stern has an overwhelming percentage of pre-health students. In addition to their copious workload, these students are expected to procure several internships in hospitals and laboratories during their time as undergraduates. This summer, two new initiatives gave Stern pre-med students a proper introduction to the world of medicine in all its intricacies.
The Hackensack University Medical Center summer internship program was led by the chair of the Department of Medicine, Dr. Julius Gardin. The program was open to Stern and YC students, although only women partook in its monthly rotations of four students. In the words of Dr. Gardin, the objective of the program was for the students to “learn important information to help them decide whether to pursue a career in medicine” and to provide these students with “access to potential mentors and advisers to call upon as they pursue their chosen career.”
The program wholly surpassed these goals. Students shadowed physicians in a plethora of specialties in the hospital, from radiology to infectious diseases to pediatric endocrinology. They were granted access to complex and innovative procedures that only medical school students or residents would normally be privy to see. The participants had the rare opportunity to witness numerous surgeries in the operating room, including a total knee replacement and open-heart bypass surgery.
In addition to viewing surgeries and observing patient-doctor interactions, the students were also exposed to some of the procedures that ensure the hospital is up and running. They sat in on administrative meetings, met with hospital officials, and discussed the changing and unknown status of future healthcare. As part of the program, they read The Creative Destruction of Medicine by Dr. Eric Topol. The book was assigned in order to introduce the students to technological advances in the field of medicine, including Electronic Health Records; all records in Hackensack University Medical Center are in electronic form, heralding the beginnings of a new wave of medicine.
Rebecca Van Bemmelen, an incoming sophomore who spent her freshman year in Israel, said that she enjoyed shadowing a multitude of specialties in the hospital. “It really showed me what it meant to be a doctor, and I know now that I want to pursue this path. It was an amazing experience.” She also mentioned the advantages of shadowing a number of religious physicians and noticing how they implemented Judaism into their work. Furthermore, many of the physicians or other healthcare professionals gave out their cards to the students to contact them at any time in the future.
The second program that began this summer was the Yeshiva University Albert Einstein College of Medicine Summer 2013 internship program. This program was also successful, but it differed from the Hackensack University Medical Center program in that students only shadowed one specialty for the duration of four weeks. Students interned in pediatric ophthalmology, psychiatry, radiology, or pediatric emergency room. Helene Sonenberg, a junior, shadowed the coordinator of the program, Dr. Ilana Friedman, in pediatric ophthalmology. After observing ophthalmologic surgeries and watching Dr. Friedman connect with her patients, Sonenberg explained that the program “completely confirmed that I wanted to go into medicine.”
Jenny Wiseman, also a junior, shadowed medical school students and physicians in the Psychosomatic Medicine department, and was able to learn a tremendous amount about mental illnesses and how to interact with psychological patients. She also appreciated how “the doctors and medical students in my department went to great lengths to ensure my questions were answered fully and that my experience would be very informative and positive.” Like the program at Hackensack, this experience provided students with valuable mentors.
The internship opportunity at Hackensack provided students with an overview of almost every field of medicine and of the healthcare system at large. The program enabled the participants to learn about a variety of specialties so that they would be able to make informed decisions involving future careers in medicine. Students in the Einstein program, however, had the opportunity to seriously learn about a single specialty exclusively and to make strong connections with the particular physician they were shadowing. Each program has its unique benefits, and were invaluable experiences for the students that will help shape their future lives and careers.