Christina Nguyen, a sophomore from Wichita Southeast High School, was getting the hang of sewing sutures as she threaded her fourth stitch on the vertical cut on a pig’s foot.

Pig skin “is a good mimic for human skin,” explained Tessa Rohrberg, M.D., assistant professor in KU School of Medicine-Wichita's Department of Family & Community Medicine and faculty adviser for the Family Medicine Interest Group for medical students.

Nguyen was one of nearly 70 students from seven Wichita USD 259 middle schools and eight area high schools who participated in a special Doc for a Day event called the Youth Diversity Summit that focused on introducing underrepresented students to the possibilities of careers in health care.

“Many times, what happens is these students feel excluded or that they can’t be included in this field. People tend to do better when they recognize other people who look like them are in the field,” said Maurice Duggins, M.D., another faculty member with the Department of Family & Community Medicine. Duggins, who graduated from KU School of Medicine-Wichita in 1993 and completed his residency through Ascension Via Christi, is also serving as president of the Medical Society of Sedgwick County.

The MSSC had approached the KU School of Medicine-Wichita Family Medical Interest Group, which has run Doc for a Day events for years in the fall, about partnering for the Youth Diversity Summit event on April 15, explained Graham Pankratz, FMIG vice president and this year’s director for Doc for a Day. 

Duggins and the MSSC helped recruit diverse physicians to help lead the various activities that students experienced.

Along with learning suturing techniques, the students learned how to check for vital signs and also helped run a Code Blue simulation to save a manikin patient named Carlos. A panel of medical students, KU School of Medicine-Wichita faculty and community doctors shared insights about making it to medical school and practicing medicine.

While middle school students learned about the dangers of vaping in an activity called “Dark Vapor,” the high school students got to help deliver babies with the manikin patient Victoria in the Simulation Center at the medical school.

For Nguyen, the event was the perfect opportunity to check out what it’s like to be a health care professional. It’s a career her family has encouraged her to consider.

“I’m here to see if the medical field is for me. I’m exploring opportunities and looking for things where I can have hands-on experiences like this,” said Nguyen, who is in a medical club at Southeast High School.

During the Code Blue simulation, Nguyen helped hold an oxygen mask on Carlos’ mouth and then later listened for “whooshing sounds” on Carlos’ chest with a stethoscope.

Paulina Almaraz-Valdez, another Southeast student, was there to check out the hands-on opportunities, too. A junior, she thinks she might either go into biomedical engineering or nephrology.

With medical student Kennedy Poro giving direction and encouragement, Almaraz-Valdez soon found herself helping deliver a baby.

“That was so exciting,” Almaraz-Valdez said, minutes after sending a video to her mom of the delivery that a fellow student recorded.