University of Hawaiʻi program inspires youth on neighbor islands to pursue careers in medicine, health

Last week, students at Waimea High School on Kauaʻi learned that working in an emergency room is like working as a detective.

The workshop, “Paging Dr. Sleuth,” allowed students to use critical thinking and problem solving to diagnose, make choices in treatment and find different outcomes with patient simulations and clinical scenarios. 

It was part of a hands-on program called the Huakaʻi Initiative that was started in 2023 by UH Mānoa’s John A Burn’s School of Medicine. It empowers youth to explore careers in medicine and health by bringing clinical scenarios directly to them.

The program will be held at Hilo High School on April 22.

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Dr. Jaimie S. Tom serves as the lead for the Huakaʻi Initiative and found herself developing the program when thinking about her own childhood, and as the first person in her family to graduate from college.

“I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up and I realized that many students in high school and middle school are similar and have never thought of medicine as a potential career for themselves,” Tom said. “We wanted to be able to reach out to these kids, plant the seeds of encouragement and show them that anyone can have the skills needed for a career in medicine.”

Huakaʻi in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi means journey or path taken.

Due to recent incidents in Hawaiʻi, including the New Year’s Eve firework explosion in Oʻahu, the injuries and problems in the program this week were focused on burns and other injuries that could come from a fire.

“These issues are timely and are complicated scenarios that allow students to really work through a case and use critical thinking that they already have in their toolbox,” Tom said. “It sparks an interest in students. This also gives them the chance to learn about different roles within the healthcare industry and the varying responsibilities of health team members.”

The Huakaʻi Initiative also was created with rural schools and students in mind, especially with the greatest physician shortages in the rural neighbor island areas. Medical students from the School of Medicine’s Rural Health Program are helping to run the program.

Although they have only visited high schools so far, middle schools have reached out to the Huakaʻi Initiative for similar workshops to enable younger students to start thinking about their interests earlier. 

“Part of my goal for this program is to spark interest and connect interested students to other opportunities,” Tom said. “We arenʻt the end of the road, but a connection point between students and the experiences that will ultimately help them find what they want to do in the future.”

Over the summer, 10th through 12th graders can attend a week-long summer program for students interested in health professions. The Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Summer Program will be held in-person at the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Kaka‘ako on Oʻahu

The program usually includes small group clinical skills laboratories and simulated patient interactions that enables students to learn how to:

• describe the epidemiology, signs and symptoms, pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of illnesses common in Hawaiʻi
• see anatomy of the heart and lungs and connect structure to the diseases studied
• perform basic clinical skills such as measuring vital signs and listening to the heart and lungs with stethoscopes
• interview and counsel patients

To register, submit the completed application to summer programs by May 20, 2025.

Along with the summer camp and STEM workshops, the Huakaʻi Initiative also offers tours of the medical school for students wanting to experience a day in the life of a medical student.

“Whether it’s volunteer opportunities, shadowing professionals, workshops, area health education centers, teen programs, or summer programs, I want this to be a one-stop shop for students on every island to easily navigate and see if there is something out there that will encourage them to take the next step in the field of medicine, Tom said.