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Medical Leader News - Training tomorrow’s doctors today: Pikeville College hosts PEPP program participants, group to shadow at PMCTraining tomorrow’s doctors today: Pikeville College hosts PEPP program participants, group to shadow at PMC
PIKEVILLE — High School students from all over the state have flocked into Pikeville to participate in Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine’s Professional Education Preparation Program (PCSOM-PEPP).
This year, 44 students were selected for the program, which is geared toward increasing the number of physicians who practice in rural Kentucky areas.
The students reside at Pikeville College for two weeks where they undergo an intensive academic program that includes participating in various departments at Pikeville Medical Center. The program is designed to help the students better understand rural medicine and the dedication needed to succeed in the medical profession.
On June 9, Dana King, director of volunteer services at Pikeville Medical Center, orientated the students and instructed them to keep their minds open while rotating through shifts in various PMC departments.
The students, working in a different medical field each day for two weeks, will be stationed in the emergency room, operating room, physical and occupational therapy departments, labor and delivery, neo-natal intensive care unit, the family practice clinic, the pharmacy and other hospital areas.
Ewell Vernon, assistant director of PEPP, said the students will dissect a cadaver during a gross anatomy class at the college and he will teach a functional anatomy class that ties the physical dissection aspect of the curriculum to the way the body works and remains healthy.
In addition to rotating through PMC departments, the students will take part in three to four hours of academic lectures per day.
“It’s very intensive,” said Vernon, a sports medicine specialist and athletic trainer. “Just about every step they take, I take with them.”
High school sophomores, juniors and seniors are accepted into the annual program if they have a good grade point average and letters of recommendation. Officials look for students who are well-rounded, Vernon said.
“Most of them are very, very mature and they have proven themselves,” he said. “A lot of the students have 3.5 GPAs and most of them have GPAs of 4.0 or more and are on a weighted scale.”
According to an article published by Pikeville College this year, PEPP has helped more than 300 high school students pursue their interests in studying medicine since the program started in 1999.
The program’s success was recognized last year in “The Advisor,” a journal published by the National Association of the Advisors for Health Professions.
PCSOM reports that 68 percent of first-year PCSOM students who came from hometown with less than 10,000 residents were practicing medicine in rural areas six years later. Eight PEPP students have take classes at PCSOM.
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