Surgeon Junior Program permits 110 local kids to diagnose and “operate”
Most of us don’t meet a surgeon unless we’re facing a serious medical issue, but the Geisinger Surgery Institute (GSI) wants to change that — getting more surgeons into the local community to do outreach and education.
Earlier this spring, surgeons from Geisinger partnered with the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum (BCM) on a program called Surgeon Junior which permitted pre-registered children ages 6-12 to learn more about healthcare from a surgeon’s point of view.
Kids examined “patients,” learned how to diagnose a medical problem, learned about the digestive tract and dental health, and ultimately, donned gowns and gloves and performed surgery. Participants explored two types of surgical procedures: laparoscopic surgery on a Jello mold and finding and removing an appendix in a multi-layered PlayDoh torso.
Parent Sara Diodata of Bloomsburg said, “I thought the program was amazing. My 10-year-old daughter Alexa loved the hands-on experience. The laparoscopic surgery activity was very fascinating and she loved learning about teeth and how they fill cavities. She even got to follow food through an intestine. My daughter and her friend also performed a fake surgery and found an appendix.”
The hands-on learning experience was a collaboration between representatives from GSI including Dr. Rebecca Hoffman, a Colon and Rectal Surgeon Tim Hare, Geisinger Project Manager, and Ginny Weibel, director of the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum.
The program was free thanks to funding by the Friends of the Children’s Museum and the Geisinger Foundation.
Hoffman said, “Having surgeons in the community is not something that happens very often, because there’s not always a niche for us.”
She said when Tim had the idea for a kid-focused program, she had an “aha” moment and embraced it wholeheartedly, running prospective ideas by her own two children, ages 6 and 9.
She continued, “We wanted everything to be hands-on.”
Hoffman had the idea of using Jello as a dissection medium and Hare found the idea for the exploding sandwich bag of baking soda and vinegar to simulate an appendix bursting.
Hare said, “Honestly, that was the most fun part, aside from the day itself, just researching fun things that we could do.”
On the day of the event, about 110 local kids rotated through various stations, placed throughout the Children’s Museum. Each station was managed by Geisinger surgeons and medical staff.
In addition to getting surgeons out into the community, GSI wants to reduce the stigma of kids going to the doctor and encourage kids to think about career paths in healthcare.
Hoffman said, “We want to get kids excited about science, medicine and bodies and we want to make being a patient a lot less scary. That was one of the goals of one of the early stations where we walked through a physical exam — let’s look at the chart and ask questions so we can figure out (what’s going on).”
Hare added, “We were hoping to inspire someone to think about science differently, that it wouldn’t be such a dry topic, that it would be something that could be intellectually engaging in a different way.”
Geisinger and the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum plan to host the Surgeon Junior event annually, perhaps adding different specialties such as spine surgery and ophthalmology in the future.
BCM Director, Ginny Weibel said, “We were thrilled to partner with Geisinger for the Surgeon Junior program, giving kids a unique, hands-on experience in the life of a surgeon. This initiative is not just about education; it’s about inspiring the next generation to consider careers in the health field, one of the largest and most vital employment sectors in our region. By engaging children in these activities, we hope to spark their interest and awareness in the diverse opportunities within healthcare.”
Hoffman said she knew that the program would be fun and engaging, but it was also very fulfilling and rewarding for all of the surgeons who volunteered.
Looking ahead, Hare would like to create another program aimed towards kids in early high school, “I’d like to get them thinking about the sciences and pre-health careers.”
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