URI students are playing a key role in engaging local high school students with careers in the health professions. Pathways to Mentorship student mentorship program links local high school students with health profession student mentors. Health profession students serving as mentors include URI Pharmacy and Nursing students, medical students from Brown’s Alpert Medical School, and physician assistant students from Bryant University and Johnson and Wales University. Most of the high school students are juniors and seniors recruited from Advanced Placement Courses in Providence schools.
Health profession students from this program can be involved in the Pathways to Mentorship Program through serving as a mentor or on the leadership team. Trina DiMella, a third year Pharmacy student (P3) at URI, serves on both the mentorship and leadership team. Mentors are assigned to a high school student. The mentor and their assigned student are then grouped into families. Each family has a mentor from each health profession major. Health profession students on the Leadership Team help with planning and coordinating the program. The program meets monthly from September through January.
DiMella states, “the program [provides] exposure to the medical field but also college prep.” Each session contains a workshop related to one of the following topics: team building, email etiquette, college prep, “Meet the Cadaver,” patient simulations, taking vital signs, and clinical case studies.
What’s DiMella’s favorite thing about the Pathways to Mentorship Program? “We all work together, we leave our different paths at the door and it’s really about whatever you can bring for that activity. For example, the patient simulations and “Meet the Cadaver” are lead by Physician Assistant students since they have a strong skill set to coordinate and lead these activities. For patient simulations, health profession students from each discipline are represented so the mentees can learn about the different roles and perspectives each discipline brings to a clinical scenario.
The program mutually benefits mentees and mentors. DiMella states, “The most valuable part of the program is that the mentees in the program are from lower income schools and get exposure to things high schoolers normally do not get exposure to.”
The final session of the program is symposium style, where students present on a project of their choice. Some students will present on full case studies presenting from the perspective of a nurse, doctor or patient. These case studies have included family members of the students who were experiencing a medical condition. Students have also presented on the importance of bedside manner when interacting with patients and on sensory rooms and their benefits.
The leadership team of the Pathways to Mentorship Program is currently working to collect data on the mentees enrolled in this program and which mentees pursue a degree in a health-related field following their participation in the Pathways to Mentorship Program. DiMella notes that upon completing high school, many mentees enroll into community college or Rhode Island College and are much more passionate about the medical field. Many students also enroll in the summer at Brown program their junior or senior years of high school to get college credit.
In addition to inspiring high school students to pursue a career in healthcare, mentors also gain experience with working in interprofessional teams. Participating in the program has given DiMella a better view of other professions and how coming together on a team makes all the professions equal contributors to the team. DiMella states, “Everyone is so interested in what other people do and really respect each other’s field. I was not expecting that people would believe so much about working together”
Through the Pathways to Mentorship Program mentors encounter all four of the Interprofessional Core Competencies (roles and responsibilities, communication, values and ethics and teamwork). Related to roles and responsibilities, mentors completed an activity where they were assigned a health profession other than their own and were asked to draw a picture and discuss with the mentees the role this profession had. For example, a nursing student drew what a doctor’s role was and then discussed with the group of mentees. The medical student would then clarify if there were any misconceptions that came up in the discussion. In relation to communication, the mentors gain experience with this competency during the patient simulation workshops. DiMella states, “There is stuff in a patient case not within my knowledge and I learn how to work with [other mentors]… [I am] getting more comfortable asking questions I don’t know the answer to, to someone who may have that knowledge in their discipline.”
The biggest competence that mentors immerse themselves in is teamwork. In order for everyone to get the most out of this program, the mentors and leadership team need to work together. Teamwork is especially important to figure out which mentor will lead each activity and who needs to step forward based on their skillset. If the mentors do not work effectively as a team the session will not run properly which can negatively impact the students’ experiences.
The Pathways to Mentorship Program is an excellent opportunity for health profession students to mentor high school students, as well as to acquire experience with interprofessional practice. Students from any health profession major, at any stage in their degree can apply to get involved. This past year Pathways to Mentorship had about 160 members, split between mentors and mentees. Of the approximately 70 mentors, about 30 students were from URI. For the 2020-2021 Academic Year the two URI student leaders will be Pharmacy student, Alexis Perry and nursing student, Natasha Granger. If you are interested in getting more involved in the program please email Alexis (alexisperry@my.uri.edu) or Natasha (natasha_granger@my.uri.edu). For general inquiries contact: pathways@brown.edu