Intermountain Health and Black Physicians of Utah Team Up for 4th Annual Medicine Immersion Day
Intermountain Health and the Black Physicians of Utah collaborated for the 4th annual Medicine Immersion Day, a community event in Utah focused on introducing Black Utahns and students of color to the field of medicine and empowering them to follow careers in medicine or become physicians.
The 4th annual Medicine Immersion Day was hosted at Intermountain Alta View Hospital in Sandy on Saturday, October 25, and provided the opportunity for Black and underrepresented learners between the ages of 15-25 to pursue a career in in various medical specialties.
“Intermountain Health and Intermountain Alta View Hospital are proud to partner with Black Physicians of Utah. Our hope is that this immersive Medicine Day will inspire young Black students to consider careers in medicine,” said Scott Roberson, president of Intermountain Alta View Hospital.
A recent report, In the Nation's Compelling Interest: Ensuring Diversity in the Health-Care Workforce, found that increasing ethnic and racial diversity among health professionals is important because evidence indicates that diversity is associated with improved access to care for patients of color, greater patient choice and satisfaction, and enhanced educational experiences for health profession-based students, among other benefits.
“Since education and vocation are such important social determinants of health, inspiring Black youth to consider a career in medicine goes a long way toward fulfilling our mission of helping people live the healthiest lives possible,” said Roberson.
The full day Medical Immersion Day event at Intermountain Alta View Hospital encompasses various workshops, panels, and more, to fully immerse students into a day in the life of a physician.
Participating students were welcomed and had opportunities to participate in breakout groups where they experienced specialties such as labor and delivery, scrubed in and visited an operating room, where they learned about its procedures and anesthesia, as well as a hands-on simulation where they learned to perform surgical sutures.
Additionally, students had the opportunity to attend a job fair with leading healthcare and biotechnology organizations that included Intermountain Health, SelectHealth, ARUP Laboratories and Myriad Genetics.
Students not only experienced life in the day of Black physicians but had the chance to gain paid clinical experience through positions at the Medicine Immersion Day Job Fair.
These opportunities allow students to better understand the experiences of Black physicians that found their paths into medicine, ask questions, and receive advice.
“I strongly believe in the saying, ‘If you can see it, you can be it’,” said Richard Ferguson, MD, president and founder of Black Physicians of Utah. “Mentorship by Black physicians and other providers of color gives guidance and opportunities to marginalized groups, like African Americans in Utah, who are often overlooked or dismissed. I would not be where I am today if it were not for the mentors who fostered my interests in science and medicine at an early age.”
Medicine Immersion Day will continue to evolve as an annual event and be a resource to students of color throughout the community in Utah.
###