YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Ursuline High School senior Addyson Miller signed up for the biomedical investigations class because she was considering a career in health care.
“I signed up for the class at the end of last year and over the summer is when I kind of realized maybe I want to go pre-law,” Addyson said. “But I still kept this class because I wanted to make sure I was making the right choice. But I also found out that I had an interest in medical malpractice.”
What she’s learning in the class may be useful for that career, too.
The biomedical investigations class is new this school year, with four seniors enrolled. It’s part of Ursuline’s Merici Med Prep Program named for the founder of the Ursuline Order, St. Angela Merici. The program exposes students interested in health care professions to experiences designed to increase awareness of various medical career paths. That includes experiences with professionals from Mercy Health and the Cleveland Clinic.
Staci Raab who teaches the class said the program started five years ago.
“So we have an extracurricular program for students who are interested in medical professions, and students are eligible for it their sophomore year,” she said. “We have roughly 20 to 25 students per grade in the program. So we wanted to kind of begin some curricular activities for them as well.”
The biomedical investigations class is the first. The class teaches lab techniques and students investigate different diseases and disorders including neurological, infectious and genetic. Next year, biomedical ethics will be a new offering within the school’s religious coursework.
The Medici Med Prep Program activities vary by grade. Sophomores, for example, video conference with Cleveland Clinic professionals. Medical professionals visit the school to speak to students. Students also tour various departments at Mercy Health St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and learn CPR and first aid. And they learn about blood-born pathogens.
“They actually get all gowned up and have their hands on organs and do some activities,” Raab said. “They do disaster training. We put up an emergency tent and triage some types of activity.”
It allows students to learn about many careers in the health care profession. They can also earn a Med Prep certificate.
“Often in the medical profession, we hear a doctor, a nurse, and they don’t realize how many other different types of occupations are out there,” Raab said. “That was kind of the motivation to begin a program like this – to kind of see what else is there.”
Some Ursuline students who participated in the program are enrolled in medical school or applying.
A 3D Anatomage table, purchased with a grant, allows students to perform virtual dissection. The table, which uses digitized human cadavers, can be found at many medical schools.
Joanie McNally signed up for the biomedical investigations class to learn more about health care careers.
“I actually am undecided on my future career, but I do find all this very interesting, so definitely a possibility for me,” she said.
Joanie learned about rare diseases and disorders and different factors, like genetics, that may influence them.
For one study unit, students selected an infectious disease to research and she picked the bubonic plague.
“So I’m looking at a lot of stuff from the Middle Ages and medieval times – whenever the plague was big – and learning about how it came from fleas on rats … and how many people it killed,” Joanie said. “And it is still around today, but it can actually be treated.”
Addyson picked polio to study. She knew a little about the disease but wanted to learn more. Neurological disorders, though, pique her interest most of all of the conditions she studied in the class.
“I love anything that has to do with just any type of mental health and psychology-related type things,” she said.
She pointed to narcolepsy as one such disorder the class studied. “I didn’t ever really know what it all entailed. So being able to study it and really see what the effects are and how it affects people. I thought it’s very interesting.”
She learned a lot in the extracurricular activities of the Medici Med Prep Program too.
“We’ve watched these Cleveland Clinic rounds, where there will be different people talking about different professions in the medical field, and that can open our eyes to different professions that we may want to pursue,” Addyson said.
Pictured at top: Ursuline High School seniors Addyson Miller and Joannie McNally perform lab work in the school’s biomedical investigations class.