During the second semester of their third year, most high school students are hunkering down as they prepare to apply to college in the fall: focusing on schoolwork to get their GPA as high as possible, touring college campuses, and building their resumes of extracurricular activities. For Grayson Graham, a student at Germantown Friends School, this also meant donning scrubs and joining trauma surgeons in the Level 1 Trauma Center at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center (PPMC).
Seeing a busy urban trauma center through fresh eyes ultimately gave Graham insight into what a career as a trauma surgeon would actually entail, and helped him to determine next steps as he prepares for the next stage of his life, in college and beyond.
All third-year students at Germantown Friends complete an internship where they shadow someone in the “real world” for a month. As someone drawn to a possible fast-paced medical career, Graham explored the possibility of shadowing a trauma surgeon. He was discussing possibilities with his biology teacher Maria Alvarez, who mentioned that their partner was a trauma surgeon at PPMC.
Graham sent an email to Elinore Kaufman, an assistant professor of trauma surgery, and pitched his case, which was met with great enthusiasm. For the month of January, Graham reported to the Division of Trauma at PPMC. Monday through Wednesday, he shadowed members of the Trauma team, going on rounds, observing in the trauma bays, clinic, and operating rooms. Thursday and Friday, he joined the Penn Injury Science Center team, helping to develop a prototype of a podcast aimed at educating the general public about violence prevention.
Graham learned quickly that trauma surgeons don’t only do trauma surgery.
“It’s definitely fast-paced, and I enjoyed the thrill of the operating room,” Graham says. “A lot of what trauma surgeons do is the nonoperative management of patients, through physical exams, imaging, and monitoring of vital signs, which I didn’t know before this experience.”
Read more at Penn Medicine News.
