Clearing trails at the Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center in Augusta, helping rehab a home in Kalamazoo with Habitat for Humanity, sorting food donations at Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes.
Those were just some of the tasks the 84 students in the medical school’s Class of 2022 completed on Wednesday, September 19, as part of their Day of Service throughout the Kalamazoo community.
The three sites were among nine in the Kalamazoo area where students spent time working on a variety of community projects with the goal of increasing their awareness of how how health disparities and social determinants affect healthcare outcomes.
The Day of Service also focuses on the building of partnerships with community organizations and the development of teamwork skills and leadership. The projects give students first-hand and up-close experience with the needs of the Kalamazoo community and the projects reflect the medical school’s commitment to community service.
The other sites where students volunteered for Day of Service were the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, Kalamazoo County Probate Court, Urban Alliance, Heritage Community of Kalamazoo, the Gilmore Community Healing Center and Stewards of Kleinstuck.
A day after Day of Service, on Thursday, September 20, the students took part in the capstone event for Medical First Responder training. The all-day event was held at the Kalamazoo Regional Fire Training Center and consisted of several emergency scenarios, including a mass-casualty incident and reviving a pediatric drowning victim. The students also got a chance to practice rappelling and vehicle extrication.
The MFR capstone event is the conclusion of a seven-week course at WMed that qualifies the students for state and national certification as medical first responders.
MFR training, which begins for first-year students during their first week at WMed, is part of the medical school’s curriculum, which provides earlier exposure to the clinical setting. The course equips students to respond when someone is ill or injured and provides them with instruction on basic procedures, including taking vital signs, CPR, bandaging and wound care and splinting, among other things.