Programs: Virtual Rounds

Virtual Rounds (VR) was created at the request of the BIPOC Health Careers Ecosystem to meet URM students’ need for clinical exposure and shadowing hours to apply for health professions schools. Students hear from a gamut of clinical specialties or public health professionals, providing them with the breadth to consider potential careers. Within its first year, VR served approximately 140 high school, college students, and post-baccalaureate students across the state.

VR was co-designed, piloted and led by HCCP Strategy Consultants Nikki Torres and Cindy Lee, beginning in the Winter of 2020-21. WPMG clinician volunteers spoke two to three times a week to a group of 10-20 students about their background, specialty, and typical clinical cases within their practice. VR was expanded in age in Spring 2021 to include a chort of high school students, and significantly expanded in size during Summer 2021.

During VR, clinical specialists share their deeply personal dimensions of their journeys, the stories of their professional path, and their current work. Clinical specialists come not only from primary care and specialty medicine, but also from nurse midwifery, psychiatric nurse practice, and dentistry. Having various specialties present to these small groups allows students to broaden their understanding of what health entails and get exposure to what could be their own futures. As providers share their vulnerable stories and their own challenges they have overcome, students are empowered to voice their own unique story and envision their own place in health.

In addition to Virtual Rounds Summer 2021, VR Alumna Marlisa Hall joined Cindy Lee in piloting Public Health Virtual Rounds concurrently. Public health speakers came from Seattle/King County Health Department, the US Health Resource Services Administration, and Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute. Topics include health policy making, environmental health, epidemiology, and more. This program admitted high school, undergraduate, and post-baccalaureate students interested in public health.

Community building and self-reflection are integral components of the program. During VR sessions, students have time in “family groups,” composed of fellow participants. In these smaller groups, students had time to form connections and to grow together throughout the program. This empowers students to take ownership of their own space in the program, and to support one another in their time of growth in and outside of the program.

Students also write reflections each week on what they learn about health care or public health careers, and on the implications of the sessions on their projected career trajectory. Students are granted certificates with their hours of attendance, for use in applying for health professions school.

To join a wait-list to apply for Virtual Rounds, please go to the Apply page.