Physician assistant Sarah Kinsley teaches suturing techniques to students from Brooke Charter School.
When young people imagine a career in the medical field, they don’t often think beyond the roles of doctor or nurse. Many students may not realize there’s a whole world of options to choose from. A new initiative at the Brigham is attempting to bridge that gap with local students from backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in medicine, starting with a day spent doing hands-on activities at the Neil and Elise Wallace STRATUS Center for Medical Simulation.
Physician assistants (PAs) Jessica McCarthy, PA-C, and Tiffany Andrade German, PA-C, spearheaded the initiative as part of their work on the Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital.
“The goal of the group is to increase diversity within the PA and advanced APP professions more broadly,” said McCarthy. “The majority of PAs at the Brigham are white females, and that really doesn’t match the profile of the patients we care for. We wanted to find fun and engaging ways to introduce PA and APP careers to students who are exploring STEM careers, so they could learn a little bit about what these careers look like.”
Advanced practice provider is a category of licensed health care professionals who receive the necessary education and training to perform some of the same duties as physicians, such as prescribing medications, diagnosing conditions and performing exams. APPs include PAs, nurse practitioners (NPs), certified nurse midwives and certified nurse anesthetists.
Hosted at the STRATUS Center, the initiative’s day-long kickoff event welcomed about 30 high school students from Mattapan’s Brooke Charter School, where 93 percent of students identify as Black or Latine. Visiting students participated in various hands-on activities, including a suturing station, an ultrasound station, a laparoscopic surgery game station and an advanced cardiovascular life support CPR station.
“We chose four areas we thought would be fun for high school students, and we had them break up into small groups to rotate through all four stations,” said McCarthy. “We had two to four PAs or NPs at each station, teaching the skills and talking with the students individually about their careers.”
Students gather for a photo with their Brigham instructors: Wilton Curiel, Jennifer Beatty, Aline Snietka, Audrey Fritzinger, Sarah Kinsley, Tiffany Andrade, Mary-Christine Sullivan, Trisha Auduong, Christina Shah, Iman Rashed and Jessica McCarthy.
Mary-Christine Sullivan, NP, MPH, a family nurse practitioner at Brookside Community Health Center, was among the staff who volunteered to help facilitate the day.
“It feels great to bring the profession into the community, and to show the students how much variation and flexibility there is within medical careers,” she said. “The Brigham is a world-class institution, and it’s amazing to share our resources with the youth of Boston and bring them out of the classroom to see what we do day to day. It’s a wonderful opportunity to grow the next generation of APPs right here in Boston.”
The interactive nature of the event allowed the students to get a better understanding of different career paths, Andrade German said.
“I’m not sure how many of the students have seen PAs and other clinicians in a real work setting,” she said. “This event gave them an opportunity to see how clinicians practice daily and to practice some of these skills on their own in a safe way.”
Bringing the classroom to life
Supported by a grant from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants, the initiative represents a collaboration with different teams at the Brigham and with the local community.
McCarthy said the team wanted to host the event at the STRATUS lab because they thought it would offer a realistic and engaging venue for the students.
“It’s where we do a lot of the skill training for providers and clinicians within Brigham, and it’s really hands-on and interactive,” she said. “When we approached Maggie Ryan, RN, MS, CHSE, the director of education at STRATUS, she was really supportive of the initiative, and the whole team at the lab were just fantastic to work with.”
Andrade German (front center) and McCarthy (back center) lead a station teaching CPR to students.
McCarthy and Andrade German also built on an existing partnership with Brooke School science teacher Adaline King, who teaches a medical interventions class, which she describes as “an applied biology class with a focus on lab techniques and medicine” that is meant for students who are interested in going into the medical field.
McCarthy and Andrade German had previously visited King’s class to do a “day-in-the-life” presentation earlier in the year and thought the Brooke School would be a great fit to kick off their initiative.
“The students were really into it and wanted to come to the Brigham,” said McCarthy. “We worked with Adaline to recruit students and organize the logistics to make the STRATUS event happen.”
For the students, it was a chance to bring their learnings from the classroom into real life.
“Part of my goal with this class is to allow students the opportunity to see what it’s really like outside of the classroom and interact with different medical professionals,” said King. “I work in a school with predominantly Black and brown students, and representation really does matter. When they attended this program and saw people like themselves at every single station, that was really important. It showed them that doctors and other medical professionals don’t just look like white men. And I also like that it showed them that there’s so many more opportunities in the medical field beyond doctor or nurse.”
Andrade German notes that initiatives like this aren’t just fun for the students, but also help build the next generation of providers.
“These students live in Boston, and we’re hoping they’ll stay in Boston,” she said. “It’s a great pipeline to get these students who work at local hospitals, serving the people in their community.”
The team already has two more STRATUS events planned for the spring with Excel Academy and Revere High School, and they hope to continue to offer the program in the fall.
“My students are definitely interested in going back to learn more,” said King.