Premedical students taking a gap year or years before medical school can consider pursuing public health opportunities to complement their patient care experiences.
Public health experiences equip future doctors with essential skills to address broader societal health care issues, such as health care disparities, infectious disease outbreaks, health effects of climate change, water sanitation and access to health care. Premeds can also gain insights into epidemiology, health policy and health promotion strategies.
Gap years are opportune times to pursue public health experiences because premeds can gain hands-on experiences rather than the more theoretical approach to public health offered during college courses.
During my first gap year after graduating from college, I wanted to apply the public health knowledge I had learned in the classroom and affect health care at the population level. Entering my gap years, I had some specific goals related to public health.
First, I wanted to learn how to build public health programs and initiatives. Second, I wanted to understand the dynamics among local health care clinics, governments and nongovernmental organizations. Third, I wanted to see how physicians could take their clinical insights and create public health programs to affect population-level changes. Finally, I was excited to learn as much about public health as possible.
[READ: Pros, Cons of Applying to Medical School After Your Third Year of College]
So how did I pursue these objectives during my gap year and what public health initiatives did I pursue?
I spent my first gap year as a Fulbright scholar in the Philippines. I first sought out doctors who were involved in public health initiatives. I learned how their clinical experiences inspired their public health initiatives.
Second, I volunteered my time to help with any public health initiatives. From these volunteering opportunities, I gained on-the-ground experience with different public health projects. I learned how to create new public health initiatives and partnerships with other community organizations.
For example, I helped one doctor launch a national HIV awareness campaign in the Philippines facilitated by unique partnerships with the music industry and media. With another doctor, I traveled to rural Philippines to volunteer at a cervical cancer screening program she created for low-income women.
As I was helping physicians with their public health projects, I was pitching other health care leaders about a public health program I wanted to create — I had a vision to increase access to vaccinations, which was also the topic of my senior thesis research at Princeton University in New Jersey.
Through persistently telling everyone about my interest in vaccinations, I was able to work on a project with the World Health Organization on improving hepatitis B vaccine rates among newborns in Manila. I learned how to collaborate with organizations like the World Health Organization and city governments.
Finally, I was hungry to leverage every opportunity possible to learn more about a broad array of public health and global health topics. Any time I received an invite to a public health conference, I said yes. Every time a policy leader or doctor invited me to a public health meeting, I said yes. Every time I was offered a chance to volunteer at a public health event, I said yes.
During my gap year, I was essentially a public health sponge. I had a great year learning about topics ranging from nutrition to neonatal health to disaster medicine. I was able to pick the brains of health care leaders about public health and gain tips to make public health initiatives successful.
[Read: What You Can Do With a Public Health Degree]
Premedical students often ask me about how I find public health opportunities. My first piece of advice is that premeds should network with other physicians involved with public health. While some opportunities are widely publicized, many are discovered through networking.
Here are common public health opportunities premed students can pursue during their gap years.
Public Health Research
Many medical schools and public health schools around the U.S. have faculty members who are engaged in public health research. Popular types include epidemiology, analyzing large data sets to understand health outcomes among different subsets of the population and analyzing the success of public health programs and initiatives.
Public Health Departments
Premed students can work for public health departments at the community, state or national level. National-level opportunities are found at organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Gap year jobs at public health departments often include working on existing public health projects. For example, you can lead car seat safety classes in the community or prenatal classes for women.
[Read: 3 Public Health Courses Premed Students Should Take.]
Nonprofit and Nongovernmental Organizations
Premeds can work for large NGOs and nonprofits like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Clinton Foundation or AmeriCorps, an independent agency of the U.S. government. Premeds can conduct research or health programming at these organizations.
There are also excellent public health opportunities at smaller, community-based nonprofits. They may have more niche opportunities and work with more specific populations, such as homeless people and individuals with disabilities or drug use disorders. As a premed working at a small nonprofit, your work will tackle initiatives toward improving the health of specific populations.
Startups and Other Companies
Many premed students don’t know that they can gain public health experience at private companies, particularly startups. For example, my mentees have worked at health education companies. Other mentees have worked for companies where they created and analyzed community-based public health programs.
Smaller companies are less likely to have official job postings. If premeds are interested in a specific company, I encourage them to reach out to the founder directly to see if there are opportunities. Chances are high that the companies are looking for bright, motivated talent!
Pursuing public health opportunities during gap years can be enriching. Learning about public health can help you translate your insights from patients you see in clinic to projects and research that can benefit entire populations.
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Public Health Roles to Pursue Before Medical School originally appeared on usnews.com
