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Health Professions Office is one reason URI has above average placement statistics among comparable academic institutions
By RUDI HEMPE
CELS News Editor & Reporter
The office is not very elegant—on the ground floor of the Biological Sciences Building, a concrete bunker affair that was never completed, and never will be. Exposed, massive air handling gear hangs overhead between poured concrete ribs that form the utilitarian ceiling. The one aesthetic asset is a view of a courtyard that needs some horticultural TLC.
But this unpretentious office is a haven for URI students who dream of careers in the medical field, a place where they can find guidance and improve their chances that someday down their academic road, a medical school will say to them—“come on board.”
Welcome to the headquarters of the Health Professions Advisory Committee. Staffed by longtime secretary, Gayle Hadfield and Dr. Joanna Norris, the Health Professions Advisor, the office become familiar territory for students who are interested in pre-med, pre-dental, pre-Physician Assistant or pre-veterinary courses of study.
The Health Professions Office made a bit of news last summer when it was transferred from Arts & Sciences to the College of the Environment and Life Sciences.
According to Norris, an associate professor of biological sciences, the move was mainly a bookkeeping one—the budget for the operations is now under CELS rather than A&S. But Norris is nonetheless cognizant that the move makes sense since biological sciences is also part of CELS now.
While the Health Professions Office is a place frequented mostly by juniors and seniors seeking help en route to a medical school, Norris contacts students interested in medical careers even before they are officially freshmen.
She attends orientation sessions for incoming freshmen and spends two afternoons a week in University College. Another two afternoons a week she is in the Health Professions Office and on top of that she has a three-course teaching load.
But the work in the Health Professions
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| Staffing the Health Professions Office are (1 - r) Gayle Hadfield, secretary since 1987, and Dr. Joanna Norris, Health Professions Advisor for the last five years. |
Office has been most rewarding for Norris over the last five years. More and more students are opting for medical field careers. She notes that URI places close to 20 students a year in various medical schools (pharmacy and nursing students do not go through her office—those students are aided by their own colleges).
When she took the position of Health Professions Advisor, the placement number was about five a year, she notes. Asked whether she expects the rate to increase beyond 20 a year, she says she doubts that—URI’s amount is just about average for the size of the university although she and others want to see more minority students in the mix.
While incoming freshmen are aware of the services that the Health Professions Office provides, most students did not actively seek guidance until their junior and senior years, says Norris. At that time, a number of things are done for them.
First a check is made to make sure they are up to speed on required courses. Then they are advised as to what they will need in their portfolios.
Next the students are required to undergo four interviews. The first one is before the entire Health Professions Advisory Committee. Members of the committee, besides Norris are Dr. Harold D. Bibb (biological sciences), Dr. Lynn Pasquerella, (philosophy) Dr. Surenda S. Malik, (physics) Dr. Brett L. Lucht, (chemistry) Dr. Andrea A. Rusnock (history) and Dr. Katherine H. Petersson (fish, animal, veterinary sciences).
After that each student has to have three one-on-one interviews with different members of the committee. |
In the end each student is given a recommendation. Norris notes that the students are not “rated” per se but that “we recommend every student based on their portfolio and interviews. We try to give an accurate picture of the students to the med school.”
Part of the portfolio, notes Norris, includes such things are extracurricular activities, hobbies and interests which help form a personalized picture of each student. The committee also performs checks to see whether a student has any “disciplinary issues,” Norris says.
The students who seek help from the Health Professions Office come from all of the colleges and are not just biological sciences majors, notes Norris. Some engineers are interested in biomedical engineering (devices to aid the disabled, for example) and many students taking psychology want to get a medical degree.
“Many students have a fall-back plan in case they cannot get into medical school,” says Norris.
The Health Professions Advisory Committee may not have much in the way of décor in its office but it could have some sort of award on its wall—the operation has a much higher acceptance rate (80-90 percent) for its students than other institutions where 50 percent is the norm.
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