
Collaboration between MGH Institute and Charlestown High School gives students chance to explore careers in healthcare
A classroom in the Shouse Building where students are learning about cardiopulmonary anatomy may not seem unusual at the MGH Institute, but this particular class is anything but ordinary. The students discussing the flow of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood and learning to measure their heart rate and oxygen levels are not MGH Institute students. Not yet.
The students are from Charlestown High School (CHS), taking part in a collaborative program between their school and the MGH Institute that aims to increase representation of multilingual learners in the high school’s Early College Pathways Program, as well as in healthcare fields in the future.
Building a diverse, multilingual healthcare workforce is crucial for improving healthcare outcomes and decreasing disparities. Having individuals from diverse backgrounds that better represent the populations of patients treated can improve communication, cultural competence and decision-making, trust, and ultimately outcomes, said School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Dean Laura Plummer.
Charlestown High’s college program has three pathways, each of which aligns with a career, including healthcare. The school was in the process of expanding access to the college program to newcomer students when the MGH Institute reached out about a collaboration.
“In building this partnership, we were able to design hands-on experiences that are planned in the appropriate ways to meet the students’ needs,” said Ajay Trivedi, the principal of Charlestown High School.
The program began this past summer when a group of students visited the Institute for an introduction to audiology, speech-language pathology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing, and simulation activities, among others. At the time, Plummer said, “This is an opportunity to expose them to all the different types of careers that might be out there — ones that we have here at the IHP and even some that we don’t have here. They’ll know the different opportunities that exist.”
Plummer, Angelina Dipietrantonio, Project Specialist for the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences,
and Mary Ellen Ferolito, Assistant Dean of Operations for the school, then coordinated closely with the Charlestown High School administration, faculty, and staff involved in the program, including an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, to develop activities that gave students a breadth of exposure to various health careers and health-related knowledge while also working to build English language skills helpful in various aspects of their education. IHP content for the week was sent in advance to CHS teachers so that they could share it with the high school students to increase understanding and learning for the IHP sessions.
Classes relied on help from the IHP community as well as those with expertise from outside the Institute.
“So many IHP faculty, staff, clinical partners, and students gave generously of their time to support these programs,” said Plummer. “I am grateful for their commitment and dedication to providing meaningful opportunities for these students to explore various health professions and to help them see a future as health care professionals.”
The program is possible thanks to a generous donation from Dan and Marjorie Sullivan. Dan Sullivan is on the IHP Board of Trustees. The couple’s support has made this collaboration possible and will continue to support pathways to secondary education for high-demand health careers for learners from underserved communities.
Going to School After School
Ten students participated in the after-school program which met twice a week over eight weeks in the fall, after they finished their regular school day. Eight of the students had been a part of the summer program.
“These kids committed to coming to the MGH Institute after a long day at school to continue learning,” said Plummer. “They deserve a lot of credit for their dedication to learning about health-related careers and vocabulary while working on building their English-language skills.”
The students had lessons on making an appointment with a primary care provider and conducting a patient interview; there was a writing workshop and visits to a mental health unit, the Ether Dome, and the Russell Museum of Medical History and Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital. There was also a class on adaptive sports with specialists from Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.
In the physical therapy lab, current PT faculty and students worked with the high school students on how to help people with different conditions learn to move and use assistive devices including walking with crutches or a walker and getting out of bed after a stroke. One of the students found this experience eye-opening.
“I knew about going to PT for a broken arm but I didn’t know it could also help people with brain injury,” said one student who called this lab her favorite part of the program.
Students had a lab with Occupational Therapy faculty and students, learning how adaptive equipment can help people dress and prepare food, and how OTs facilitate recovery and support independence. There was a similar lab with speech-language pathology students on understanding language, speech, and adaptive communication.
Two of the classes took place in the simulation lab where the students learned about taking vital signs, listening to lung, heart, and bowel sounds, caring for wounds, and how to stop the bleeding, as well as being introduced to the career opportunities in simulation by Eliana Palumbo, a senior simulation operations specialist.
In the final weeks, there were two classes focused on anatomy. Here, students learned about the brain and tested each other’s cranial nerves in one class and then looked at the heart and lungs in the other. If you passed by that class, you would have seen one student demonstrating an excellent understanding of the material, his interest piqued by a family member’s experience.
“My grandmother has a pacemaker so I am interested in how it functions and curious about the heart,” one student said, adding that he took part in the program so he could learn and also focus on the future.
It is a future that may include new possibilities thanks to this healthcare career pathways program.
“What I appreciate about the program is that not only does it give students academic or career-related language skills and specific experience, but also builds their identity as healthcare professionals through these cohort models and these types of activities,” explained Liana Tuller, the vice principal at Charlestown High School. “It’s not just giving them tools, it’s helping them think of themselves and their trajectories.”
This Spring, Institute faculty will be co-teaching a health careers exploration elective for multilingual learners with an ESL teacher at CHS.
"We look forward to continuing to partner with CHS to expand opportunities for students and create pathways to health care careers," added Plummer.
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