Southside Hospital Inspires Youth to Pursue Medical Careers

A handful of high school students from the Medical Scholars Pipeline program were at Southside Hospital recently to learn about various medical careers and how to get started in pursuing them.

The Medical Scholars Pipeline program, which was created through a partnership of North Shore-LIJ Health System’s Center for Learning and Innovation and the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, exposes high school students to a month-long course about healthcare careers over the summer, including hands-on training.

Adenike Adeyemi-Jones, one of the eight students who visited, will be starting a seven-year bachelor’s and MD program at the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City College of New York in the fall and benefitted from learning from several Southside Hospital physicians and other medical professionals.

“The opportunity to meet accomplished professionals showed me the diverse ways to practice medicine -- whether it be as a doctor, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner,” Ms. Jones said. “Not only were we educated about the clinical side of medicine but we were taught about the administrative side of medicine and how to make that transition from clinician to administrator.”

The highlight of the day for her was taking a tour of one of Southside’s operating rooms with Alan Hartman, MD, senior vice president of cardiothoracic services for the North Shore-LIJ Health System, who also performs procedures at Southside Hospital.

“Getting to suit up like a surgeon, trying to read angiograms of various cardiac patients and listening to the path Dr. Hartman took to become one of the top cardiac surgeons on Long Island was amazing,” Ms. Jones said.

Other Southside Hospital employees who spoke to the students included Donna Moravick, NP, executive director of the hospital; Jay Enden, MD, medical director; Barry Goldberg, MD, director of pediatric cardiology; Karla Gesslein, PA; and Coleen Ryan-Frank N.P.-C.

Ms. Jones, of Uniondale, has been interested in medicine since she was in elementary school and is very excited to start her path to becoming a physician.

“Having the chance to meet the people we did showed us that success can come from any background or upbringing and the path to success is not a one size fit all course,” Ms. Jones said.