Inside Duke Medicine

DUH, Duke AHEC offer internships to future health care providers

Victor Dzau, M.D., DUHS president and CEO and Duke University chancellor for health affairs, mingles with students from the Durham Public Schools’ City of Medicine Academy on a recent visit. Photo courtesy of DPS

Duke University Hospital and Duke’s Area Health Education Center are teaming up to provide summer internships for students at a Durham high school that specializes in health care careers.

Eleven City of Medicine Academy students will spend four weeks in July at DUH and Durham Regional Hospital. They will participate in group educational activities, plus one-on-one activities with assigned health care professionals who match the students’ areas of interest – which range from cardiology to anesthesiology to neonatal nursing and more. The goal is to create a unique learning experience that fuels the students’ desire to work in health care.

The DUH side of the effort was spearheaded by Associate Vice President MaryAnn Black of the Office of Community Relations and by Pamela Edwards, associate chief nursing officer for education and deputy AHEC director. Also involved was Linda Chambers, a health careers coordinator and fiscal director of the Duke AHEC program.

AHEC is part of a statewide program establishing a community training network for health professionals and addressing concerns about their supply, distribution, retention and quality.

“Each student expressed an interest in a particular specialty, and we tried to get them a close match to the field they chose,” Chambers said. “DUH educators and clinical staff have been excited about working with the students.”

The AHEC Health Careers staff will follow the CMA students as they move into their final year of high school — and into college or other post-secondary educational program.

That makes sense for Duke and for the interns, Edwards said, especially since they are minority students, a group under-represented in many health care professions.

“Diversity is one of our core values,” she said. “The health care workforce isn’t representative of our population, so it’s important to keep improving the number of minority care providers.”

Chambers said the internships are part of Duke being a good community partner. “Some things you do just because it’s the right thing to do,” she said.

As DUH and Duke University Health System continue to grow, the students’ career path could lead them back to where they spent this summer.

“Our hope is that they may work at Duke,” Edwards said. “It makes sense to grow our own right here in the community.

Elizabeth Shearer, Ph.D., principal of CMA, said DUHS is a “wonderful partner” with the school in many ways, especially through the internship program. “These internships will provide our students with invaluable and authentic experiences that will significantly increase their preparation for college and careers, as well as enhance their competitiveness in the college market,” she said.