Surgery Live! offers middle and high school students the opportunity to close their textbooks and actively participate in UPMC in Central Pa. operating rooms through immersive, high-definition video conferencing technology.
In real life and real time, students have the unique opportunity to see and hear step-by-step how certain procedures, such as gastrointestinal surgeries, hysterectomies, and cardiac device implantations, are performed as well as how and which instruments are used in the operation.
In 2014, Abbie Hoy, BSN, RN, CNOR, Operating Room, UPMC West Shore, was then a student at Millersburg High School, eager to learn and discover her passion — and she did, when she witnessed a surgical team demonstrate a gallbladder procedure on the big screen while on a Surgery Live! field trip.
“If it wasn’t for Surgery Live!, I may have never considered a career in the operating room,” Abbie shared. That’s one of the many reasons why UPMC, with support of the UPMC Pinnacle Foundation, is now a sponsor of Harrisburg-based Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts’ Surgery Live! Program. This program, created more than a decade ago, serves a vital part of UPMC’s mission to shape tomorrow’s health system, and its staff, by investing in and inspiring the next generation to pursue a career in health care.
“My favorite part of Surgery Live! is interacting with the students,” said Pamela Keller, DNP, CRNP, UPMC Magee-Womens Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery, who moderated a live hysterectomy this past May. “They don’t just passively watch the surgery. They ask thoughtful questions about what’s going on and what might happen next.”
Pamela said that the program also opens the eyes of students, chaperones, and teachers to health care challenges that affect many people, including potential friends or family members. For Pamela, educating individuals about their options and getting them connected to necessary health care resources can be equally rewarding.
Enjoy this entire story and more in the August issue of First Friday and celebrate the people and programs UPMC champions to make our world a better place.
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