Breezing Up—An Interdisciplinary Health Professions Course for High School Juniors and Seniors and College Freshmen

A Wayne Bruce; Kylie J Behm; Nasser Hammami

doi:10.29074/ascls.19.2.112

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A Wayne Bruce, PhD⇑
1. is Professor of Pathology and Director of Continuing Medical Education and Outreach, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks ND
Kylie J Behm
1. is Educational Coordinator of Continuing Medical Education and Outreach, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks ND
Nasser Hammami, MS
1. is Assistant Professor and Director of Medical Instructional Technology, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks ND

Address for correspondence: A Wayne Bruce PhD, Professor of Pathology and Director of Continuing Medical Education and Outreach, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 501 North Columbia Road, Grand Forks ND 58202-9037. (701) 777-2636, (701) 777-4261 (fax). wbruce{at}medicine.nodak.edu

Extract

Recruiting students into the health professions is an ever growing problem as young people are faced with many attractive options for career choices. At the same time, a rapidly growing elderly population will require more health professionals to maintain the health system. To address this recruitment issue an interdisciplinary health professions course delivered to high schools and college campuses in North Dakota via the Internet was developed at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS). The participating high schools embedded the course in the health professions curriculum and students were given the option of receiving college credit. The course features presentations by professionals representing 16 different health professions and were developed using a new software called Macromedia Breeze™ that allows for easy recording of PowerPoint™ audio presentations and imputing video content into the presentation. Blackboard™ was utilized for course management.

As Americans age and expectations for healthcare grow, shortages have developed leading to a decrease in the quality of care as well as an increase in cost.^1,2 Rural communities are experiencing an even greater problem as they have limited ability to compete for the health professionals available.³ North Dakota, with a size approximating one third of Texas and less than 650,000 in population, is experiencing this phenomenon and anticipates the problem to worsen. A variety of solutions have been proposed from developing career ladders to importing health workers from foreign countries.⁴ A significant suggestion has been to work with high schools to familiarize students…

ABBREVIATIONS: LRSC = Lake Region State College; OCMEO = Office of Continuing Medical Education and Outreach; SMHS = School of Medicine and Health Sciences; UND = University of North Dakota.