Local outreach event encourages minority students to pursue medical careers | Education

As part of a mini summit hosted Tuesday at Union High School to encourage more minority students to consider careers in medicine, Ewohime and 50 other secondary students from across Oklahoma spent the morning doing hands-on activities to reinforce skills used by health care professionals.

Along with practicing CPR on dummies, putting personal protective equipment on as fast as possible and channeling MacGyver to make casts out of cardboard boxes and bubble wrap, one station used Styrofoam cups, orange juice, oranges and Ziploc bags to teach students how to safely break a pregnant woman’s amniotic sac without injuring the fetus.

“I never expected to do anything like that,” Ewohime said. “I didn’t think I’d go anywhere near childbirth, but this was the first activity I wound up going to. It was still cool, though.”

The event host, Black Men in White Coats, is an organization that strives to diversify the medical field by providing mentorship opportunities and introducing students to potential career possibilities.

According to a 2018 study published by the Association of American Medical Colleges, 5% of all active doctors nationwide identify as Black, 5.8% identify as Hispanic, 17.1% identify as Asian, 0.3% identify as American Indian or Alaska Native and 0.1% identify as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

Both Ewohine and Osifeso have family members in nursing who have encouraged them to consider going into medicine. Neither is completely sure what specific area of medicine they would like to pursue, but said they are intrigued at the possibilities.

“My mom is a nurse practitioner,” Osifeso said. “She keeps telling me to go into medicine. I sometimes look at the papers she has to do and it looks like fun.”

In addition to the hands-on activities, participants also had the opportunity to make contacts with local undergraduate students, medical students and health care providers.

“This gives me more energy than anything else — the potential in this room,” keynote speaker and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Oklahoma-University of Tulsa School of Community Medicine Dr. Jabraan Pasha said. “This is potential energy. I see the possibilities in this room. We need y’all. There are not enough of us in medicine, and the sad truth is that lives are lost — literally — because there aren’t enough of us in medicine.

“I’m not saying that to put pressure on you. I’m saying that to give a little extra motivation as if you don’t have enough already.”