‘Day in the Life: OB-GYN’ gives high schoolers glimpse into future medical careers

A hundred students from 20 area high schools spent the day at UMass Memorial Medical Center Memorial Campus learning what it’s like to be a caregiver in obstetrics and gynecology.

Held on Monday, July 27, Day in the Life: OB-GYN was organized by the UMass Chan Medical School Collaborative in Health Equity and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology in partnership with UMass Memorial Health.

Amina Mohamud and Candice Ntim, students at Worcester Technical High School, are both interested in future careers in medicine and said the Day in the Life program was a good opportunity to see if OB-GYN could be an option.

“This program is really a chance to explore more career paths and see if OB-GYN could be one of them,” Mohamud, a rising senior at Worcester Tech, said. 

Ntim, a sophomore and student in the Allied Health program at Worcester Tech, said she’s been interested in a career in OB-GYN since she was in fifth grade. 

“I want to attend nursing school and then maybe go into the field of OB-GYN,” Ntim said. She will earn her Certified Nursing Assistant credentials when she completes the Allied Health course.

The students participated in discussions with doctors, nurse practitioners, medical students and residents. Interactive stations and hands-on activities included learning about postpartum care, labor and delivery, ultrasound and amniocentesis, refugee health, ambulatory care and more.

“It’s great to give students early career exposure through programs like this. I’m all for helping students see what this field is like so that they can start preparing and making connections now instead of waiting to see what opportunities they may have later,” Vanessa Urhiafe, a fourth-year T.H. Chan School of Medicine student, and a volunteer with the Collaborative in Health Equity, said.

Urhiafe hopes to match in an OB-GYN residency next year. She helped lead a suturing workshop during the Day in the Life program with Sydney Cush, MD, an OB-GYN resident at UMass Chan, who spent her first day of vacation volunteering for the program.

“I’m passionate about the programming. It’s a chance to volunteer and share whatever knowledge I have about being an OB-GYN and a medical student,” Dr. Cush said. “Some of the basic skills we teach these students today could really ignite a future OB-GYN or surgeon and help start a career.”

Program support and donations came from the Schwartz Charitable Foundation and the H.O.P.E. MA Coalition (Holistic Organized Partnerships to End Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting in Massachusetts). Several departments joined in the effort, including the Department of Anesthesiology, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, Department of Neurology and the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing.