Teens throughout Cedar Park, Leander and the surrounding area recently had a chance to get their sanitized hands dirty – medically speaking – as they learned about and explored cardiology by dissecting a bovine’s heart.
It’s not the first time many of the teenagers have gotten to dip their hands and arms into practical medical experience through the free Adventures in Medicine (AIM) program offered by the local hospital, Cedar Park Regional Medical Center. Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. in the hospital’s café.
The hearts, large, muscular and fairly tough – even with a surgical scalpel in hand — kept the more than 30 teens busy as they explored the ventricles and chambers of the cow’s vital organ, under the watchful eye of hospital staff, volunteers and the Austin Heart cardiologist in charge, Vivek Goswami, M.D.
“This is way cooler than dissecting a frog,” Leander High School junior Suzie Scanlon said as she and fellow LHS junior Hunter Schuler worked in blue surgical gloves, taking turns with the scalpel.
Both Scanlon and Schuler already know they share an interest in medicine.
Schuler said he knows he is not interested in cardiology as a future career.
“I’m interested in emergency medicine,” he said, “but this is still fun.”
“I prefer pediatrics,” Scanlon said.
At the table next to them were three middle schoolers and a fifth-grade sibling of one of the boys with his mom. They too were scrubbed, gloved and working with surgical tools.
Hospital marketing specialist Dana Raykovich said the wide spread of ages is not unusual. Although the program covers children from ages 13 to 18, a couple families have been allowed to bring older elementary-aged siblings, if parents also come, she said.
The meeting allows time for a doctor to speak on his or her chosen specialty, often a hands-on demonstration, a quiz (that can allow students to accumulate credit points for a year-end prize) and a tour of the hospital correspondent to that night’s covered topic program
A favorite hands-on activity during the eight-month long program was the chance to mix and then build a cast around a friend’s arm or hand.
Raykovich said more than 150 students have passed through the program, which began in 2008. The program begins in September and continues with monthly meetings through April, with time off during December. It is designed to allow kids who are interested in health and medicine to explore different topics within the medical field.
This year’s program covered oncology, internal medicine and surgery, orthopedic surgery, women’s services/obstetrics, cardiology, physical therapy (to be covered in March) and endoscopy (to be covered in April).
Any student can join the program at any time.
Many of the high school students have earned extra credit certificates accepted by their science teachers, depending on how the monthly topic relates to the current science class they are taking.
AIM volunteer Barbara Cavuto believes the program is beneficial to students.
“It’s great to expose them to medicine,” she said. “It helps them decided whether they’re interested in medicine. Even if they decide they don’t like it, it’s still a success.”
Cavuto, a former Leander High School science teacher, established the first HOSA club in the Leander school district at Leander High in 1991. HOSA is a school club of Health Occupation for Students of America.
Some of the students who participated in AIM go on to become volunteers with the hospital, although there is no formal student volunteer program with CPRMC, Raykovich said.
Shanta Veeramachineni, a Vista Ridge High School junior, is in her second year of participating in AIM. Last summer, she also applied and was accepted as a volunteer during the summer at the hospital.
Raykovich said last year the hospital used 14 students during the six-week summer volunteer program.
“Some of our best volunteers have come from AIM,” she said.
Students must apply to be a volunteer, Raykovich said, and the program will probably stay the same size as last year.