The University of Illinois College of Medicine in Peoria hosted a simulation day for local public school students on Saturday.
The program run by medical students is called GUIDES. The acronym stands for Guide, Understand, Inform, Drive, Educate and Serve. It started in 2011, but this is the first year the initiative included kids from local high schools.
The goal is to provide mentoring and hands-on medical learning to low income and minority students.
Eposi Njie, a freshman at Richwoods High School, dissected a pig heart during a pathology lab/operating room simulation.
“I wish I could do this every day because it’s really really fun,” Njie said.
Njie wants to be a gynecologist someday. She says her mother, who’s a nurse, has been her inspiration.
“I think it’s really helpful for me having my mom being a role model, cause I really look up to her and want to follow in her footsteps cause she’s a really good person,” Njie said.
It turns out, having someone to look up to in the medical field is like a key that opens the door to a career in medicine.
Nicole Liberio, a fourth year medical student at UICOMP, says that’s why a program like GUIDES is valuable for young students who don’t have a mentor in medicine.
“They want to hear our stories and how we got to where we are, especially because the University of Illinois students are a diverse group, have different stories and pathways and how they ended up in medical school,” Liberio said.
She says to think of it as an early pipeline program.
“Having that exposure early on lets them figure out what they need to do in high school to get them..cause if you wait until you’re a junior or senior in college, it’s not that easy,” Liberio said.
The broader goal is to get more minority representation in the medical field, particularly among doctors.
The American Association of Medical Colleges reports while 14-percent of the US population is black, only four-percent of physicians are. Latinos represent 16 percent of the population, but only 5 percent of physicians.
The AMA also says that a more representative physician population has a positive impact on health disparities.