There are many summer programs for underserved high school students across Connecticut, but how many bring those kids into operating rooms watching anesthesiologists do their job?
Just one.
The inaugural youth scholars program, sponsored by Integrated Anesthesia Associates (IAA) and Hartford HealthCare, was held in August and connected eight students from Hartford High School and Fairchild Wheeler High School in Bridgeport with providers at Hartford Hospital and St. Vincent’s Medical Center. The free weeklong program included transportation and lunch.
“We are always working on ways we can give back to our local communities,” says Joe Vitarelli, COO of IAA, which services four HHC hospitals. “In the last few years, we began to talk about how we could provide opportunities for high school students to learn about the field of anesthesia, medicine and healthcare in general. One of our anesthesiologists had gone through a program in high school, and that experience inspired this.”
The youth scholars had classroom time in the morning to learn about medicine, anesthesia and more. In the afternoons, they shadowed anesthesiologists in the operating rooms, observing procedures from craniotomies to orthopedic to cardiac to pediatric. Each student experienced two to four procedures a day.
Rocco Orlando, MD, senior vice president and chief academic officer for Hartford HealthCare, greenlighted the idea as soon as IAA presented it.
“It’s part of our overall strategy to do more with high school students, and to further develop relationships with high schools around the state,” Dr. Orlando says. “It’s all about the workforce pipeline. There are profound (employee) shortages in so many areas, and Connecticut has zero population growth. We want to make sure students are aware of all the great opportunities in healthcare – not just the usual suspects, doctors and nurses, but all the areas.”
The IAA Youth Scholars Program was a rare chance to learn from the inside.
“You have to remember, these are high school students,” Vitarelli says. “Aside from watching TV programs that give kind of a view of what happens in a hospital, they’ve never been behind the curtain of the OR.”
On the last day, students met at Hartford HealthCare’s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI) at Hartford Hospital, where they worked on mannequins as anesthesiologists guided them.
“The beauty of it for me was getting them involved and getting them excited about possibilities,” Vitarelli says.
Trevor Sutton, MD, an IAA cardiac anesthesiologist who works at Hartford Hospital, remembers being mentored and coached in high school by someone who saw potential in him. That set him on a career path and he hopes the program can do the same for an underserved student in Hartford or Bridgeport.
Diversity and inclusion in healthcare, he says, should not only focus on patients but also on practitioners. An intensive and interactive program like the Youth Scholars – which was in planning for more than a year – can help students who may not otherwise know about career options and future possibilities.
“We wanted to highlight career pathways, but also provide mentorship, inspiration, hands-on learning and fun,” he says.
The planning committee worked closely with the high school administrators to identify students. One participant has already signed up to volunteer at Hartford Hospital and another wants to come back next summer to do it again.
“This is a tremendous example of a program reaching people and making an impact that we could never really imagine,” Dr. Sutton says. “You can’t put a price on, or overestimate the importance of, exposure to opportunities like this and mentoring.”
Plans are already underway for the 2024 session.