Undergraduates considering a medical profession can attend an elective course aimed at unraveling some of the mysteries and confusion surrounding medical professions.
Introduction to the Professions of Medicine is a 5000-level class sponsored by the department of family and preventive medicine within the School of Medicine and was designed to give pre-med students an idea of what to expect in the profession.
“The class will be great for people who are thinking about going to medical school,” said George White, director of public health programs in the department of family and preventive medicine.
“It helps people understand the reality of what the medical profession is all about,” he said.
Samuel Browd, neurosurgery resident at the U Hospital, teaches the class, which he designed while working on his doctorate at the University of Florida.
Each week, a different faculty member from the hospital comes in to talk about his or her profession for an hour.
It gives the students a chance to see the different specialties within the medical field and hear about the education and training required for each of them.
Specialists from the burn and trauma unit, radiology, neurology, emergency medicine and others have come in the past.
Guest speakers discuss subjects ranging from legal issues within the profession and the rising cost of malpractice insurance to what life is like as a physician after graduation.
The class will also provide pre med students some opportunities for shadowing physicians so they can see what they’re getting into.
Browd said it’s not so much a hard-core science class as it is an opportunity to understand life as a physician.
Before coming to the U, Browd’s classes in Florida were attracting up to 150 students. At first, the course was only offered online at the U, but has been available as a regular course for a year and a half.
Although the class is designed for pre-med students, everyone is welcome, said Andrew Davies, a pre-med student himself and Browd’s teaching assistant.
“For many, health care is a very complicated issue [which] we want to shed light on,” Davies said.
Although the class is only one hour per week, it offers three hours of elective credit.
Besides attending lectures, students are asked to frequently take online quizzes, write a paper on any medical topic and take a midterm and final examination for full credit.