2024 Children's of Alabama/UAB Annual Report

“ “We have medical doctors who are products of our school district giving back by mentoring and teaching the next generation of medical professionals.”

Mark Sullivan, Ed.D., superintendent of Birmingham City Schools, says the Mini Medical School program shows success on several levels. “First of all, this is another successful partnership between BCS and UAB with a positive impact on our scholars and our community. At the same time, we have medical doctors who are products of our school district giving back by mentoring and teaching the next generation of medical professionals.”

– Mark Sullivan, Ed.D.Schools

Hands-on Approach Each session, students are immersed in a different area of the health care field. Professionals from each field help guide a hands-on lesson and answer questions about their educations and career journeys. Professionals including physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, poison control experts and forensic scientists have volunteered with the program.

“We want to engage our local

students at a young age to the immense career possibilities in health care,” said Blakemore, co-director of the program and assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at UAB and Children’s. “We also want the program to be an additional resource for students to learn valuable lessons and skills that they can integrate into their education and personal lives.” During sessions, the students take part in a variety of hands-on activities, including performing CPR and intubating lifelike manikins, obtaining vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure, venipuncture using a lifelike model, learning the importance of healthy meals and making their own healthy snacks, and much more. Carlette Smith joined the first session of the 2023-24 school year to discuss the field of nursing. Smith, who graduated from the UAB School of Nursing, spent more than 26 years as a nurse manager at UAB Hospital. From her education journey to her mantra of “treating patients like I would want my mother to be treated” she provided insight and encouragement to students interested in pursuing nursing.

2024 Academic Annual Report

19