As Jordan Greene, 16, meticulously worked to accomplish successfully making a square knot on a simulated body part in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Dr. George McNamee, deputy director of surgical skills in the Simulation Center at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC), offered advice and encouragement.
“This is not easy [and] why surgeons go 14 years of school. They go four years to earn their bachelor’s degree, then go four years of medical school, and another four to six years [in their specialty],” McNamee explained to Greene and the high schooler’s fellow students participating Thomas Edison High School (HS) of Technology’s Academy of Health Professions Medical Science With Clinical Applications program. The program exposes students in various public high schools throughout Montgomery County to medical and science careers through classroom study and work-based internships.
McNamee, a native of Bruce, Miss. who’s also assistant professor of surgery in the Norman M. Rich Department of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, usually teaches and mentors medical and nursing students, residents and faculty in the proper techniques of surgery and research, leading to improvement in patient care and safety. On May 5 at WRNMMC, his seven students were younger – high school juniors and seniors, most with aspirations of careers in the medical field like Greene, who wants to be a surgeon.
“I like to help people, and I really like medicine,” said Greene, a junior at Paint Branch HS in Burtonsville, Md., who adds he wants to be a cardiac surgeon.
In WRNMMC’s Simulation Center, McNamee also demonstrated on computers how to improve the operating skills of surgeons, administer an intramuscular injection, and suture wounds and incisions with needle and thread to the students and let them have their try.
“You got it,” McNamee said to Greene as the teenager successfully made the square knot, used to close incisions and wounds. “Keep working hard, Keep working hard,” was the doctor’s final words to the high school students.
Army Spc. Syverson Brehon, a surgical technician at WRNMMC, also gave the students some insight into an operating room (OR), showing the students how medical professionals “prep” for procedures, sterilizing their hands, carefully donning their scrubs, ensuring they have the proper equipment, and correctly handing instruments to surgeons.
Walter Reed Bethesda’s perioperative nurse Karina Clerge, was also on hand to give the students advice, explaining to them she had stood in their shoes when she was a high schooler at Montgomery Blair HS in Silver Spring, Md. “They were where I’ve been before,” she explained. “When I came into the program I had no idea of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field but I wasn’t quite sure [what that was]. Meeting folks through this program really gave me a sense of direction. I was really happy and grateful that I participated in the program.”
Clerge, who earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the University of Missouri, is now working to become a family nurse practitioner, which she expects to accomplish in August.
With aspirations of following in Clerge’s footsteps and becoming a nurse, Prerna Lall, also a Paint Branch student and participant in the Medical Science Program, said she has enjoyed working in the lab and at WRNMMC as part of the program. “I’ve enjoyed exposure to all of the different specialties and more experiences like this really helps me in determining what I want to do,” Lall added.
Registered nurse Kristine Mansky is the medical careers instructor at Thomas Edison and is a coordinator for its Academy of Health Professions program. She explained in addition to professional recommendations and high academic performance, students accepted into the program must complete a foundation of medicine course, as well as a human anatomy and physiology course.
The “academically challenging” program that has evolved from one to two years, combines science and technology, Mansky explained. “The learning environment includes classroom, computer research lab and clinical laboratory, which certify students as medical assistants after completing the first year. The course’s second year includes work-based internships, the final at WRNMMC. “During this rotation, Medical Science interns rotate through a variety of departments, observing health practitioners and participating in hands-on experiences when appropriate,” she added.
Mansky has participated with WRNMMC as part of the program, which began in 1985, since 1991.
“There have been 30 to 40 students every year who have been in the program in the 25 years I’ve worked with it,” Mansky said. “I have former students who are veterinarians, a pediatric oncologist, worked in the ER in Sri Lanka, clinical psychologists, and a lot of nurses.” She added a nurse in the Mother Infant Care Center at WRNMMC, Rebecca Carter, also participated in the program.
Mansky said the students Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) certification, as well as certification as nursing assistants by the Maryland Board of Nursing, and basic life support for health-care providers certification.
Most rewarding about the program, Mansky said, is witnessing the participants “evolve” into not only excellent students, but practitioners. She said she also enjoys hearing from her former students and how they have achieved their dreams of higher education and working in the medical field.