Undergrads Get Hands-on Medical Experience Through Engaged Learning Program

Dr. Paul Siffri ’92, an orthopedic surgeon with Prisma Health, demonstrates arthroscopy strategies for Furman University college students on the Hawkins Foundation Bioskills Lab in Greenville, South Carolina. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.

“Who wants to go first?”

Dr. Paul Siffri ’92an orthopedic surgeon with Prisma Health, held an arthroscope in a single hand and a motorized shaver within the different, providing the medical devices to a gaggle of eight surgical gown-clad Furman University undergraduates.

The group, a part of the college’s Healthcare Today Engaged Learning Communitytraveled in November to the Hawkins Foundation Bioskills Lab in Greenville, South Carolina to study the fundamentals of a minimally invasive orthopedic process. The twist was Siffri was providing the prospect for these undergraduate college students to apply on an precise, cadaveric knee.

Engaged Learning Leaves an Impression

From left, Avery Columbus ’29, Hunter Kuhnell ’29, Danielle Buccini ’29 and Anna Kate Bailey ’29 watch as Dr. Paul Siffri ’92 demonstrates arthroscopy devices on the Hawkins Foundation Bioskills Lab. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.

Biology main Amelia Cowart ’27 was among the many first college students to bravely work together with the knee. She had shadowed different medical professionals, however this was the primary alternative she needed to get any hands-on experience.

“That’s a unique experience not many other universities offer to undergrads,” she stated.

It was a shock at first to govern the pinhead-sized digicam as she slipped it previous the patella and used her different hand to take away tissue broken by arthritis.

“I’m doing something successfully that surgeons do in their everyday lives,” she stated. “That was absolutely exciting.”

Cowart is the president of HOSA-Future Health Professionals at Furman, and fast-tracked early acceptance to medical faculty through the Furman University-University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville Direct Entry Program. For her, the engaged learning program reaffirmed her ardour for drugs and gave her the experience to be assured about her profession objectives.

“Meeting doctors and hearing about their lives, and their work, has been comforting,” she stated. “If they’re out there doing this, we can do it too.”

Healthcare Today Engaged Learning Program

A young woman manipulates surgical instruments while a surgeon beside her gestures with his hands to help guide her movements.

Paul Siffri ’92 helps Anna Kate Bailey ’29 carry out arthroscopy strategies in a lab as a part of the Healthcare Today Engaged Learning program. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University

First-year college students at Furman have the choice to immerse themselves in interdisciplinary subjects, connecting with college, employees, alumni and group companions alongside their educational paths.

Learning Communities are a part of how makes the first-year experience particular. The Healthcare Today program enrolls college students in a First-Year Writing seminar course specializing in a medical matter, the place they have interaction with classmates who share an curiosity in drugs. Beyond the classroom, college students get real-world perspective from native healthcare professionals at group companions like Prisma Health System.

Programs like this are how Furman college students had a 100% acceptance fee into medical faculty within the 2024-2025 educational 12 months.

“This program is designed to expose them to a breadth of healthcare fields, but no matter what type of medicine you go into the competencies and skills often overlap,” he stated TJ Banisaukasdirector of pre-professional advising and chief well being careers advisor.

Mentorship and Professional Perspective

Siffri was impressed by how enthusiastic the Healthcare Today college students had been as they every took a flip working towards with every of the devices generally utilized in arthroscopic surgical procedures. That fearlessness and curiosity will serve them properly in any discipline, however he stated it is particularly helpful within the aggressive surroundings of medical faculty.

A young man practices an orthopedic surgical procedure with the guidance of an older surgeon over his shoulder.

Hunter Kuhnell ’29, a Furman scholar within the Healthcare Today Engaged Learning Program, practices arthroscopy strategies with supervision by Dr. Paul Siffri ’92. Photo by Nathan Gray, Furman University.

“You have to love what you do,” he informed them. “When I’m interviewing you, I want to know if you can take care of my patients, and I care about your enthusiasm and integrity.”

Students requested him about strategies for avoiding burnout and the variations between working for a hospital system and beginning a personal medical apply. He spoke with them about their very own backgrounds and inspirations for finding out drugs. He studied biology himself at Furman earlier than attending the Medical University of South Carolina.

“This is my way of paying back the foundation I got at Furman,” he stated. He felt proud seeing his alma mater put a lot effort into serving to college students join with professionals and discover careers within the medical discipline.

“It was inspiring to see an alumnus so successful and loving his career,” stated Avery Columbus ’29, a well being science and Spanish main from Boston. “It was nothing like what I’d ever expect to do coming in as a first-year undergraduate student, and it’s a reminder that even though our courses might be rigorous, people do it and it’s a rewarding track to be on.”