ComThe Community Health Professions Academy (CHPA) was created in 2014 by OEPD to help inspire youth grades 8-12 from underserved communities to pursue healthcare careers. CHPA currently provides information and hands-on activities to explore the health professions in a hybrid program of virtual and in-person sessions. This year, CHPA hosted 31 high school scholars from WA state for 8 Saturday sessions scheduled from January through May. Scholars learned about careers in public health, dentistry, medicine, traditional medicine, nursing, and neurotechnology. During each session, local healthcare professionals and students volun-teered to participate on mentor panels to talk about their journeys to their careers. In addition to the opportunities to connect with professionals on the mentor panels, the CHPA scholars also participated in live online hands-on activities as a group with materials that were mailed to them.
While most sessions were virtual via Zoom, CHPA scholars had the opportunity to come to the University of Washington D1 Simulation Lab for a day of hands-on activities. With the help of medical, nursing, and dental student volunteers, the CHPA scholars rotated between 5 different stations; tooth waxing, manual blood pressure assessment, placing compo-site fillings, suturing, and taking dental impressions.
If you have any questions, please contact the OEPD office at uwoepd@uw.edu.