Looking back... what would you have wanted out of a Pre-Med Club in UG?

[CopToEM]

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Looking back to your Undergrad experiences, what are you thankful that the Pre-Med organization you were a part of gave you and what didn't you have that you would have benefited from?

Currently, my university doesn't have a Pre-Med club and all Pre-Med students are lumped into the Pre-Professional club. Needless to say... it's not at all helpful. The university is going to allow me to found a Pre-Med club and besides the obvious (MCAT information, study tips, etc.) what other things should I try to provide?

Some ideas I've had:
- A list of Physicians who are willing to allow shadowing/volunteer experiences.
- An ongoing list of volunteer opportunities - medical and non-medical - which are open to all Pre-Med students.
- Guest speakers on campus in various topics about medicine. Nothing technical but more 'this is what's ahead of you... here's how to make it happen' kind of presentations.
- Group tours of the surrounding med schools.
- SDN. SDN. SDN. I can't answer it all and won't research it all for them, either.

Any other ideas? I really appreciate your input.

 

[CopToEM]

Bump, anyone?

 

[doctordaman]

List of research opportunities. Here, you just have to go around prof to prof and hope they have a spot open and like you.

Also, maybe somehow organize something with a local hospital to let the students watch a transplant procedure or other major surgery because that'd be really cool.

 

[teenmachinery1]

Looking back to your Undergrad experiences, what are you thankful that the Pre-Med organization you were a part of gave you and what didn't you have that you would have benefited from?

Currently, my university doesn't have a Pre-Med club and all Pre-Med students are lumped into the Pre-Professional club. Needless to say... it's not at all helpful. The university is going to allow me to found a Pre-Med club and besides the obvious (MCAT information, study tips, etc.) what other things should I try to provide?

Some ideas I've had:
- A list of Physicians who are willing to allow shadowing/volunteer experiences.
- An ongoing list of volunteer opportunities - medical and non-medical - which are open to all Pre-Med students.
- Guest speakers on campus in various topics about medicine. Nothing technical but more 'this is what's ahead of you... here's how to make it happen' kind of presentations.
- Group tours of the surrounding med schools.
- SDN. SDN. SDN. I can't answer it all and won't research it all for them, either.

Any other ideas? I really appreciate your input.

no pre-med club? that's harsh. Is your school in north korea? jk

i don't think the list of physicians thing will fly. They just wouldn't do it like that- make themselves available for a club? I don't think so, let those interested seek them out and do it that way.

JUST MY OPINION BTW

I think the volunteer opp. list is great.
Guest speakers is a great idea!! I always enjoyed guest speakers.
Group tours.. sure.

other ideas: just shooting from the hip here -

have weekly or whatever meetings on hot med-ethical topics. Let the members _debate/persuade each other/just talk about or ask questions about_ health care reform, certain bioethical scenarios and your basic bioethical principles and such..

meet over medicine related books. like a book club except talk over house of god, or whatever.

this is kind of already covered but, study groups for mcat, bio, etc. you could all take computer-based practice exams together and pretend liek it's fa'real and stuff.

ummm.. medicine theme based movies?

I would also suggest trying to do your own thing as a club. instead of joining in on another effort, or following another organization for volunteer work or whatever... how about- define a medicine based problem in your area that's not addressed, and together in your club (you could get suggestions from members) come up with your own solution on how you can help as a group. then do it.

I think this would be sweet.

In case this last suggestion was too abstract:

In seattle, someone was made aware of a nasty hookworm problem in parts of africa. this parasite is especially devastating for kids because it causes developmental problems.

anyways, hookworm = bad.

so, some lady student at UW, decided to give them some shoes. hmmm, where to get shoes... Ah HAh! Collect shoes for charity after the seattle marathon.

http://seattle.metblogs.com/2005/11/25/what-to-do-with-old-running-shoes/

Brilliant!!

Now she's at Yale law school almost with a degree and about to make that scrilla chedda' cheese.

Sorry for the long blabbery response but I'm extremely exhausted.

👍

 

[jjmad1201]

all i asked for at the pre-med meetings was cookies and punch 😡

 

[JJMrK]

I'd second a list of PIs accepting student researchers. My lab has found a few students that way.

 

[armybound]

Definitely wish there was a structured shadowing or volunteering program.

 

[CopToEM]

All great suggestions. Essentially, I still think it's a good idea to keep a list of Physicians who don't care to let students shadow them. I think a lot of Pre-Meds are scared to ask a Physician if they can come in and do it. This is obvious from the dozens of 'How Do I ask Permission to Shadow' threads on here.

Not necessarily a list of shadowing opportunities but physicians who are saying... "Hey, I'm up for letting you come into my practice and shadow, but you've gotta call me up and ask... just know that I'm willing to do it."

I will definitely work to create a list of research opportunities both on campus and within the community. I like the debate idea. Keeping it drama free will be the challenge.

I definitely like the MCAT Group Test idea... we could even have a proctor who is familiar with the restrictions of MCAT test day to supervise and give instructions to make it as realistic as possible.

I'd like to follow that up a week or so later after everyone has had time to review their errors, together, to share knowledge to help each person out with their shortcomings.

The community relations aspect of the club will be a big push for me. As you can see from my avatar, public health is an area of interest, so we'll definitely touch base on things that are affecting the geographical area surrounding our University. The mortality rate, diabetes rate, heart disease rate, etc. here are astronomically higher than the rest of the state. Exposure to 'the people' and their issues will keep everyone motivated to what the ultimate goal of all this hard-work and studying is about.

 

[CopToEM]

A friend suggested this to me... a structured shadowing program, like armybound mentioned, except do it rotation style. Scenario Below:

Week 1 - 4 hours shadowing in a primary care setting
Week 2 - 4 hours in OB/GYN setting
Week 3 - 4 hours shadowing in Emergency Medicine

So on.... throw in a few 'elective' shadowing opportunities once the cycle is complete.

Obviously, scheduling would be a nightmare and finding the physicians willing to participate. However, each member being able to tell AdCom's that they shadowed X different specialties throughout the course of their Junior and Senior years for a total of 200 hours would be pretty sweet.

Thoughts?

 

[loveoforganic]

One thing I've really enjoyed from our club was guest speakers (physicians of varying specialty) that came in to talk to us about their specialty and their experience as doctors. This was something our club has honestly been phenomenal at (speakers at least every other week, and we had the head of the AAMC once).

Structured shadowing is another big one. Cold calling random doctors is fail.

Edit: That's a good idea Cop, but might be hard to implement. If you manage it though, thumbs up.

 

[CopToEM]

One thing I've really enjoyed from our club was guest speakers (physicians of varying specialty) that came in to talk to us about their specialty and their experience as doctors. This was something our club has honestly been phenomenal at (speakers at least every other week, and we had the head of the AAMC once).

Structured shadowing is another big one. Cold calling random doctors is fail.

Edit: That's a good idea Cop, but might be hard to implement. If you manage it though, thumbs up.

Yup, I've already started throwing a few hints around to the Physicians that I know about speaking opportunities. There's two that I really want to get right off the bat to come in. One operates his practice out of a semi-truck trailer and travels around the state. Another is a family practitioner by day who serves as the medical examiner in our area 24/7 on call... talk about two very different fields, huh?

If I can work out the logistics of the shadowing system, I'll do it. At the very least, I definitely want to rid students of the nervousness of cold calling physicians and hopefully save the physicians who don't want people to shadow them the hassle of having to tell students 'no.' I'd venture to say that I think a list of physicians willing to allow shadowing should be a key component of any pre-med club.