This post was republished to Prof. Redd at 10:19:13 AM 6/17/2010
NAAHP – 2010 National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions
More notes are posted. Now I intend to finish this entry during the PM of June 24, 2010.
The objective of the NAAHP post is to provide you with my notes and documentation of my attendance at the 19th Annual Conference of the National Association of Advisors for the Health Profession (www.naahp.org). After the conclusion of my trip, I will consolidate this blog post with notes from the 2009, WAAHP Conference (April in Santa Fe, NM). http://www.waahp.org/about.html
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Photos will be posted in a few days by Pisca. The NAAHP Power Points will be linked to this page within two months. The NAAHP is moving their website and said they need a couple of months before providing us with the links from this conference.
NAAHP Conference
June 16 – June 20, 2019 - Atlanta, Georgia
Thank you to the NAAHP for financing most of the cost of my trip.
Conference Notes are Consolidated and Could Represent Notes Taken in Two Workshops with Overlapping Topics.
The ideal student asks, "…how high must I jump?" And then, does it!
Experienced Advisors Meeting:
The most useful aspects were Duke University's presentation on their in-house web base premedical/pre-health sciences profile form. The students start their profile at the orientation of their freshman year. Highlighted was the case study of a student named Salman. At the new student orientation he identified himself as pre-medical/Mathematics. The Health Sciences advisors contacted him and put him on a list serve. His profile of his medical school statement of purpose letter was started right away. He signed on as a Red Cross Volunteer and spent his first summer in Tanzania volunteering with the engineering corp. His junior year started with a kick off for his medical school application (and for the other students their professional school applications). The program kept track of his patient contact hours, volunteer work, awards won, etc. Salman's application instruction included: Deans Conversation; Essay Writing; Interviewing; Navigating the Primary Application; and How to Select Medical Schools. Salman was admitted to seven medical schools. He selected Harvard.
Another university emphasized that every course the students take are necessary for the MCAT, PCAT and other professional school programs. We were advised to tell students to get the most out of all their courses.
Students need patient contact hours, to explore the world and know the challenges of cultural, economic and social differences. They also need shadowing and research experience.
Two of the presenters discussed how some students get angry when they learn how much work they have to do to attend a health sciences program such as medical or physical therapy school.
The personal letter and letters of recommendation need to be "personal" which means it falls between academic and intimate.
Students need to take care of their social identity, most notably on Facebook.
Many schools are doing group advisement because they have to do more with less. Drop in group advisement works well for some advisors. Use www.explorehealthcareers.org
Inter-Professional: "When two or more professions learn with and from each other to improve the quality of care." The topic was presented by a local pharmacist and a case study; "Growing Old is not for Sissies" was led by advisors from Western University of Health Sciences. All nine mock professionals of WUHS gave input (Optometrist, Nurse, Veterinarian, Osteopath, Physical Therapist, Physician Assistant, Pharmacist and Dentist). The movement to inter-professional learning was an international charge of the mid-1980s for Long Term Care Facilities and Inpatient Clinical Settings. The Journal for Inter-professional Care was published in 1986. The Center for Inter-professional Education was established in 1987.WUHS has 94 groups of 10 professionals. One is a faculty member. The others represent each of the nine disciplines. The hope is that health care professionals, particularly medical doctors, would encourage patients to see other health care professionals. Also: Two case studies were presented by 17 representatives of the health professions to demonstrate how each person of the team is essential to patient care (Dog Bite Victim in an Emergency Room and Breast Cancer).
Dinner with Nine University Level Health Sciences Advisors and Medical School Admission Officers:
I presented them with the question: What happens to community college students after transfer? I learned that California may have the most stringent transfer requirements. They were surprised. Transfer students need to start their premedical courses right away. Some states financially penalize university students once they have exceed a certain number of units and think students should major in life sciences (not mathematics, art, psychology etc.). Other states disagreed. All states agreed that students should take most or all of their premedical courses early albeit many of the advisors expressed a lesser view of the courses taken on a community college campus. There was a lot of prejudice towards community colleges and community college students expressed which I found rather sad because I realized that people were closing doors on the students. I learned from my table mates that privately they expect students who are graduates of state schools, instead of prestigious universities and Universities of "___" are expected to have higher MCAT Scores and GPAs. There are formulas that some programs use. The word for community college students, particularly premed students, is that they need to have higher GPAs and transfer to better universities. I have been told for years that students from a school such as CSU, Northridge are equally competitive for medical school as those from UCLA but I heard from the people who read the applications that their practice is otherwise.
Students need to know they have to stand out from hundreds of other applicants. The fluffy stories don't sell. Also they are not impressed with students who talk about their own or relatives' health issues as being the impetus for their interest if they can give in depth explanations for how it influenced them to pick medicine. They are not interested in students having a list of activities that are essential to pre-medical/ health sciences students such as clinical experience or international service without them being able to explain in depth what they learned. They want to hear reflective comments. They said to have students be able in three sentences or less give substance reasons for wanting to be medical doctors or other health sciences professions. These sentences need to be exactly the first thing out of their mouth and what they write. Creaming, such as what the UC does for transfer students, is not done by medical schools and other health sciences schools. The statement of purpose is important. It is the frontline for weeding out students who are good test takers but are unsuited for the medical professions. Depth and motivation must be seen in the application and then in the applicant if invited for an interview. The first three sentences of premedical students' purpose statement sells or breaks their competitiveness.
The MCAT – they supported what UCLA told me - have the students take extra writing courses. They weed out students with less than the score of eight on the verbal section. Even an eight is too low. If English is the second language then a verbal score of eight or seven is viewed slightly more favorable. Premedical students have more trouble with the verbal score than the other sections yet the verbal score is the most important one for most of the medical schools.
MDs/Ph.Ds are paid and receive free tuition.
Key Note Address:
There was not a dry eye. The speaker stimulated deep pathos. His name was CDR Richard H. Jadick, DO, USN and he spoke of his service in Iraq. One man he spoke of in particular was killed. Another solder, a med-corps man, who tried to save him was shot three times. He had photographs of these solders getting shot, on the ground, and getting rescued. What he showed us was the real deal. The good news is that the med-corps man is now in PA school. I realized the importance of the right person being a medical doctor. I saw the heart of the speaker. He had a passion for medicine and humanity. He said we, advisors, are the sphere of influence for students to achieve their dreams. From us, health sciences students need acceptance and compassion.
Post Baccalaureate (Mostly MD but Good Info for Most Other Health Sciences Students): Two main types: Lots of applicants for a few seats (i.e. 600 applicants per 50 seats). Students need support of post-bach programs for their letters of rec., personal statements, etc. Career Changers (CC), Academic Enhancers (AH) - Ten years ago, many of the AH students would have been admitted on their first try to professional schools. The competition is now tougher. Post Bach. Programs have formal systems for helping students with the personal statement and obtaining letters of recommendation. Some programs will write the letters as a committee. Some programs hire professional letter writers. When applying to these programs, be prepared to have a committee interview. Post Bach. Programs over all have smaller class sizes and many programs have courses that are just for the post-bach. students. Students need to known to their professors.
The ideal student asks, "…how high must I jump?" And then, does it!
My Strong Recommendation to Students Using Community Colleges for Post –Bach (based on what I learned at a different conference at UCLA):
It is not the best idea to do post-bach work at a CC but if you are doing it, please stay in touch with your university professors. I personally will not write letters of recommendation for Post-Bach. Health Sciences Students. I was told by UCLA the letters are not respected. Letters from university science professors carry more weight but if you seek letters from your community college professors try to get them from your science professors. Seek out the ones with Ph.Ds. Give them plenty of time to write a perfect letter. You should write a rough draft of the letter and let them embellish it with their own comments and observations.
AH= Near miss, should not take the MCAT, take MCAT practice tests, find a good MCAT prep program (there is no one program good for all students) such as Princeton Review or Kaplan, get back in the game. Move forward with course work, shadow, get hands on clinical experience, apply early to several post-bach\ programs, post-bach students take courses as a cohort and have smaller courses of approx. 30 students. Work on your overall profile by service learning, leadership, working well with others, Reimage the personal statement, exposure to professionals in your modality (Future PAs with PAs, Future MDs with MDs, Future PTs with PTs, etc., work on letters of evaluation (recommendation). If you are borderline, don't even apply to medical school. Strengthen your package first with a Post-Bach program. Multiple years of application (maybe beyond two years) is not well perceived.
CC- Solid good undergraduate grades, attempted none or one or two of the pre-req. courses (many programs will reject students who took one or two of the courses); have good reason for career change (and not that you hate your job),
Desired Non-cognitive Skills: flexible, team player, collaborator, lead and follow, problem solver, accepts responsibility, pursues opportunities, asks good questions, active learner, takes initiative, ability to utilize resources effectively, respects diversity, altruistic compassionate, empathic, effective communicator, receptive to input, willingness to abandon old non-productive habits, willingness to receive and act on constructive criticism.
Students who bash there professors for their poor grades or bad instruction or who arguing with their professors about their final grades are not good fits for medical/health sciences professional programs. The ideal student asks, "…how high must I jump?" And then, does it!
Students need to stay active in the mind of their professors. One student had a habit of sending letters to her professors (by USPS) twice a year updating them on her activities. Sometimes she included photos. They all remembered her and were able to write good letters for her.
Counseling the Unsuccessful Professional School Applicant
See Post Baccalaureate.
The ideal student asks, "…how high must I jump?" And then, does it!
Counselor Points: Discern the cause. Divine the solution. The second go around is tougher (but not impossible to surmount) and multiple years of applications equals a bad news applicant. Often the unsuccessful applicant is one who did use career and academic services. It is known that some unsuccessful applicants are not displeased because they were pushed into medicine/health sciences by their parents and view rejection as an opportunity to do what they really want to do. Be sensitive to the cultural backgrounds of pre-med and other health sciences students. Some students will do what their parents want and it is our job to help them. If they are rejected, then many of them will be happy to show their parents the rejection letter. Red Flags: Serious criminal offense; More than one minor criminal offense; holes in academic record; science GPA trending downwards; failure to graduate on time/ procrastination; odd interpersonal behavior; parents who seem more concerned about the application than the applicant; lack of strong statement of purpose; not able to stand up to holistic review; lack of research (it is now mandatory at most schools)…
Break Bad Habits!!!!!
Students: Investigate MCAT, DAT, GRE, etc. prep programs (pick the one that suits your learning style); When looking for out of state med and other professional schools, check for the ones that have a good percentage of out of state admissions; work on interview skills; discern weakness & improve
Have a viable plan B and go for it! Health Sciences is not for everyone.
Disciplinary & Criminal Records:
