our programs serving and developing the next generation of healthcare professionals

virtual shadowing program

Explore a wide-array of health careers, clarify career interests and goals, and connect with professionals in your area through a flexible and accessible virtual format.

Overview

The Medi-Futures Virtual Shadowing Program is a free program that provides pre-health students with opportunity to gain exposure to a wide-array of health careers and specialties, including physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physical, occupational, and speech therapists, veterinarians, social workers, and more, from speakers who are local to their institution.

Each fall and spring semester, 40+ healthcare professionals are invited to give 1-hour presentations providing information similar to what students might learn through a traditional in-person shadowing experience: their path to healthcare, education, and lifestyle, along with diseases, treatments, research, and patient cases relevant to their field. In summer semesters, 18+ healthcare professionals are invited.

At the end of our program, a certificate is provided to students who meet the attendance and participation requirements. For students who don’t meet the requirements for a certificate, virtual shadowing hours are earned.

Benefits of Virtual Shadowing

Previously, finding a meaningful shadowing experience often required knowing the right people, making yourself available when your mentor was available, and having the necessary transportation, wardrobe, etc. to make a good impression. This naturally made it so that shadowing, and all the benefits that come with it, was not easily accessible by all. The Medi-Futures team believes that all pre-health students deserve an opportunity to learn more about a career of interest, obtain guidance on how to effectively pursue a career, develop a relationship with a trusted mentor, and receive the many other potential benefits of shadowing.

Our virtual shadowing format allows us to recruit the best mentors and give them an opportunity to relay their message to over a thousand students all at once. Because our team recruits the mentors and professionals, students are not expected to have prior connections with healthcare professionals.

All sessions are recorded and available to students who work, have family obligations, or otherwise are unable to attend live. Medi-Futures enables students to shadow over 40 healthcare providers each semester – something that was simply not possible with traditional in-person shadowing.

For undecided students, rapid exposure to a broad range of careers can help to narrow down options to a few careers of interest. For students with defined career goals, exposure to the full breadth of healthcare professions provides an appreciation for the complexities of healthcare and how many professions play a role to provide excellent care to patients. Medi-Futures wants students to have a strong idea of how multiple careers in healthcare may look before they spend significant time and effort pursuing one.

Students who participate in the Medi-Futures Virtual Shadowing Program may include the hours they’ve earned in the shadowing section of an application to health professional schools! Students should specify that hours were earned virtually; virtual shadowing hours are meant to supplement traditional in-person shadowing hours, not replace them.

Mentorship Program

Connecting health professional students and pre-health undergraduates with healthcare professionals for impactful mentorship.

The Medi-Futures Mentorship Program intends to connect undergraduates, health professional students (medical, PA, nursing, dental, etc.), and healthcare professionals from similar backgrounds and with similar interests. The goal of this program is to contribute to a more successful and equitable health career pipeline by bringing students and professionals together to support one another and to provide guidance, foster insight, encourage growth, and empower

Over a 6-month period, from October thru April, groups will meet monthly to work on a project and to discuss suggested topics. To facilitate relationships among group members and to give everyone an opportunity to pursue a professional development project, we are asking each group to work toward solving a problem related to any aspect of healthcare, health education, healthcare access, or community outreach. You do not need to cure cancer or end all health disparities (though, be our guest!).

Who is in a Mentorship Group?

Undergraduate students and health professional students are matched with a healthcare professional in a career path/specialty of interest.

Members of a Mentorship Group include:
~ 1 healthcare professional
~ 1-2 health professional students
~ 2-4 undergraduate pre-health students

Monthly Meetings

The Medi-Futures Mentorship Program takes place over a 6-month period, from October through April, with an estimated time commitment of 3-4 hours per month.

The Medi-Futures team will provide groups with monthly discussion topics to initiate intentional conversation. Groups are expected to discuss these topics in addition to planning and executing their project (detailed above).

Monthly meeting times are coordinated by each group based on availability. Intended meeting times with each group will be shared with the Medi-Futures team to help us follow up with groups. We highly encourage groups to attend monthly meetings in-person to foster stronger relationships; however, groups may meet via zoom if needed.

Project Expo & Reception

The Medi-Futures Mentorship Program Project Expo & Reception is an event celebrating the culmination of the program for the year and the achievements of each group.

During this event, Mentorship Groups will present and display the projects they have been working on over the course of the program.

Top awards will be given in the categories of Healthcare Access, Health Education, Community Outreach, and Overall Most Outstanding.

Ambassador Program

The Medi-Futures Ambassador Program is a leadership development program in which pre-health students serve as representatives of the Medi-Futures Program. Ambassadors lead student outreach efforts, organize events and fundraisers, manage social media, and provide informal peer mentorship to pre-health students at their institution.

The specifics of the Medi-Futures Ambassador Program differ at each institution. To learn more about the current Ambassadors at your institution and to stay updated on future opportunities to apply for an Ambassador position, visit your school page. Depending on your institution, the Ambassador role is either a one-semester or a one-year commitment.

events

In addition to the programs above, Medi-Futures organizes experiential learning events for students to gain deeper insight into various healthcare roles, to prepare to be strong applicants to professional schools, and to develop into future leaders in healthcare.

Each Medi-Futures program hosts events at differing times and frequencies, so for event-specifics, please contact the Medi-Futures team at your institution or visit their social media page.