Pre-Med/Pre-Health

Course Description

This immersive, ten-day course introduces students to the interconnected world of modern medicine - from the first response in an emergency to the public health systems that safeguard entire populations. Through lectures, guest speakers, and hands-on simulations, students will experience the full spectrum of healthcare roles and gain insight into how care is coordinated across disciplines. By the end of the course, participants will understand not only how health professionals treat individuals but also how their collective efforts sustain community health.

Key Topics

• Guest lectures across the spectrum of healthcare roles: Public Health, Emergency Medicine, Nursing, Clinical Laboratory Science, Surgery, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Palliative Care.
• Focus on connection and collaboration: How professionals from EMTs to physicians coordinate patient care from crisis to recovery.
• Lessons on the continuum of medicine:  From outbreak response and diagnostics to ethics, empathy, and community health.
• Activities: Outbreak investigation, mock triage, scribe role-play, nursing skill lab (vitals, IVs, medication basics), and diagnostic case simulation.
• Lab Work: Mock blood draws, PCR demonstration, bacterial susceptibility testing, and data interpretation.
• Project Work: Small groups trace a patient case through every stage of the healthcare system, integrating insights from each role.
• Final Presentation: Teams present their case findings-linking individual patient care to population-level health outcomes-to peers, instructors, and guests.
  

Prerequisite/Skills Needed:

• Biology, Chemistry preferred