Programs 2008-2009

Academic Excellence

SNMA Academic Excellence Program

In the past, there has been an informal system of members of the SNMA assisting each other in striving towards academic excellence. Next year, we hope to continue to match interested first year SNMA members with second year SNMA “big siblings” whom they can rely on for advice and/or extra help. The second year members will help first year members adjust to the academic demands of medical school by making themselves available for tutoring, time in the labs, and assisting with developing study techniques that will increase academic excellence among our members.

Community Service

Health Screenings and Fair

At various Schnucks around the region, SNMA will hold monthly health screenings in order to identify those individuals at high risk for hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. These screenings are very popular with medical students, as they provide students with the opportunity to serve their communities while practicing their clinical and communication skills. We would like to continue to expand this program due to its popularity and greater demand in the community, and we are continuing our commitment to follow up with persons with abnormal test results who are not receiving care from a primary care physician. Eligible persons will be referred to the Community Health in Partnership (CHIPS) clinic and other Federally Qualified Health Centers. They will also be followed up by SNMA members via phone communication in order to track their progress, and to encourage them to establish visits with a primary care physician.

SNMA has traditionally collaborated with other student groups (including groups at SLU) to organize health fairs that offer hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol screening tests to individuals in the St. Louis community especially those who lack access to health care and may otherwise not get screened. Next April, we will have a large health fair that encompasses a health screening with informational booths and student-led activities educating the public about health issues. This fair will serve as the culmination of our health screenings for the school year, and it will be advertised to all of the individuals screened at previous screenings throughout the year, as well as throughout the community, to help establish longitudinal relationships between medical students and the community they serve.

Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program (HPREP)

The HPREP program introduces students to basic anatomy and provides an introduction to the medical field. The classes at the high school level include the cadaver demonstrations and demonstrations on the use of medical instruments. The teaching events also provide a forum for medical students to interact one-on-one with the high school students and offer college and career development advice. This past year we set up interactive learning stations for students to rotate through in small groups. Medical student-teachers lead them through cadaver demonstrations and skill-building activities like auscultation of heart and lung sounds. This year, we expanded our program to multiple grade levels at Beaumont High School and received very positive feedback and requests for further expansion of our program to include more sessions.

Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students (MAPS)

The MAPS program provides mentoring opportunities to minority undergraduate pre-medical students at Washington University. This past year the SNMA-MAPS program has made considerable progress. The SNMA-MAPS coordinators held an interviewing seminar for the undergraduate students in September of this academic year. We held multiple MAPS brunches during the second half of this year, which have fostered much more interaction between the SNMA (medical students) and MAPS (undergraduate students). Recently, we led a medical student panel for the undergraduate students which consisted of both Washington University and St. Louis University medical students. All of these programs were very well received by the undergraduate students, and we hope to hold more programs for the undergraduate students next year.

Increasing Awareness of Health Care Issues Affecting Underserved Populations and Increasing

Cultural Sensitivity at Washington University

“Serving the Underserved” Lunch Talk Series

Highlighting the issues of the underserved in medicine and increasing cultural sensitivity among future and present doctors is one of the most important missions of the SNMA. Towards this purpose we seek to maintain a constant presence in promoting these issues throughout the year by hosting a series of lunch talks. This year, we are introducing a series of lunch talks that highlight careers in caring for underserved populations. We plan to invite clinicians and researchers working with underserved patient populations in the greater St. Louis area to talk about what they do, the career choices they have made, and how students can get involved in current projects. The goal of the “Serving the Underserved” talks is to promote general student interest in careers in community health and empower students with the knowledge of what they as future physicians can do at the individual level to help eliminate health disparities. We believe that our efforts to maintain a discussion of these issues on campus will help to create future doctors with a better understanding of sociocultural issues affecting underserved populations and will facilitate linking interested students to physician-mentors in the community

Hispanic Heritage Month

We hope to invite a highly regarded speaker to discuss immigration and health care issues as they relate to Latinos. In previous years, we have presented a biographical poster series of influential Latinos that was displayed in the FLTC, and we wish to repeat this again this year. We also wish to host a viewing of a topical movie followed by an open discussion. We are requesting funding with the hope that we will be allowed to continue to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

Black History Month

We would like to continue the tradition of hosting speakers to discuss issues in medicine and health care delivery as related to African Americans, and to showcase posters of influential African Americans with the aim of encouraging students to become more culturally competent. In previous years, we have also hosted an open forum and a viewing of a topical movie where these issues were further discussed.

Travel to National and Regional Conferences

SNMA Regional & Leadership Conferences

SNMA National Conference