Doctors hope to inspire by school visits

Telling today's minority students about the medical profession could help make them tomorrow's physicians.

By Damon Adams, amednews staff. April 15, 2002.

Teresa Ramos, MD, handles the crowd with the ease of Jay Leno during a monologue.

Standing in front of a brown water heater in a cramped school storage and music room, she crisply volleys back answers to questions that students lob her way:

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What does a doctor do? How much money does a doctor make? How many years of education is required?

Dr. Ramos has come to the Inter-American Magnet School in Chicago to tell seventh- and eighth- graders what it's like being a doctor. She's taking part in the AMA's Doctors Back to School program, a new initiative designed to get minority students interested in pursuing medical careers and to raise awareness about the need for minority doctors.

Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans make up about one-fourth of the U.S. population while only 7% of all doctors are minorities, the AMA said.

Dr. Ramos and other program participants said having a minority physician speak to students shows minority youths that they can become doctors, too.

"It can make a difference," said Dr. Ramos, an internist whose office is near the school.

Bringing along some tools of the trade also helps spark interest.

Dr. Ramos and Antonio Delgado, MD, also an internist, brought x-rays, stethoscopes, an otoscope and an ophthalmoscope. Students listened to each other's heartbeats and looked into their classmates' ears and eyes.

For eighth-grade student Alexandra Lopez, 13, the visit was a chance to see her future career.

"It was very, very interesting. I really want to be a doctor," said Lopez.

Seventh-grader Maceo Vidal-Haymes, 13, said the visit reinforced his desire to go into medicine. "I like learning about how people's bodies work and how they move."

The AMA's Minority Affairs Consortium kicked off the Doctors Back to School project in March, when doctors nationwide began visiting classrooms to build up to National Doctors Day on March 30. More than 160 doctors requested information packets on the project, and the effort includes visits by former AMA President Lonnie Bristow, MD.

The AMA hopes doctors will start making regular visits to schools.

William McDade, MD, PhD, returned to his old school in Chicago to talk to students.

Students at Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. Elementary School told Dr. McDade it was nice to have a school graduate come back to chat with them. The school asked him to speak at the eighth-grade graduation in June.

"The students were very receptive," said Dr. McDade, a physician-scientist and chair of the consortium's governing committee. "That's all it takes for some kids to realize that they can do it."

The school's principal agreed.

"They could actually see themselves in him," said principal Eugene Mason.

Michele C. Reed, DO, returned to her alma mater, Malverne High School in Malverne, N.Y. She told 100 students about the importance of getting an education and what they could expect if they become physicians.

"I just spoke to them honestly," said Dr. Reed, a family doctor and school district physician.

Jeff Gonzalez, MD, showed Philadelphia middle school students a heart model and talked about his role as a doctor.

"It was very fun for them and it was fun for me," said Dr. Gonzalez, a third-year resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

During her visit to an elementary school in Greenville, S.C., Shelia Roundtree, MD, handed out surgical caps to fourth-graders. She also dispensed some advice: Start thinking early about choosing a career path if they want to become doctors.

"The goal of this [project] is to plant a seed in their heads," said Dr. Roundtree, an internist in Greenville. "It can motivate children to realize they can do anything they want."