Physician Engagement

Share your enthusiasm

Someday you’ll have to replace yourself. There are many ways to share your enthusiasm that don’t involve having a student seeing patients with you. Please send us your contact information and tell us in which ways you could make yourself available to help grow future doctors. We can be contacted at askuwsom@uw.edu.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Answer emails or return phone calls to students who have questions about your specialty and type of practice.
2. Take a pre-med student or a medical school applicant to lunch or dinner and talk about what it is like being a doctor. If your background is underrepresented in medicine, meeting you can be especially inspiring for pre-medical students when they realize that their dreams can come true. You can also introduce them to what is going on with minority health professionals in the local community. (If you are especially interested in meeting students from underrepresented minorities in medicine, contact Nora Coronado, Center for Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion ncorona@uw.edu.
3. Provide overnight lodging for applicants who come from out of town to interview for University of Washington School of Medicine. Interviews are held in Anchorage, Boise, Laramie, Seattle and Spokane.

Physician shadowing

Like many medical schools across the country, the UWSOM wants to make sure that applicants are making an informed decision before they spend their time and money to apply to and attend medical school. Shadowing provides prospective physicians with the opportunity to witness firsthand both the joys and frustrations of practicing medicine. To learn more about being shadowed by a pre-med student, please visit our Shadowing page.

Engage with Pre-Health Scholars through SHPEP and UDOC Summer Programs

The Center for Workforce Inclusion and Healthcare System Equity (WIHSE), within the Office of Healthcare Equity (OHCE) at UW SOM provides free summer enrichment programs for K-12 youth, high school, college students who are interested in pursuing medicine, public health, or dentistry. These include the following:

• Undergraduate Program - UW Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP): SHPEP is a free 6-week hybrid (2-week virtual, 4-week in-person) summer enrichment program focused on improving access to information and resources for college students interested in the health professions. Open to undergraduate students, SHPEP’s goal is to strengthen the academic proficiency and career development of educationally and economically under resourced students and prepare them for a successful application and matriculation to health professions schools. SHPEP is implemented at 11 program sites across the nation.
• High School Program - UDOC: UDOC is a 6-week hybrid (3 weeks virtual, 3 weeks in-person) summer residential program held on the UW campus. The program exposes students to an array of health professions and serves approximately 30 students per summer. UDOC is for rising high school senior students who have an interest in the health professions. The program is open to students throughout the state of Washington (rural, urban, suburban, etc.), especially those with limited educational and financial resources.
• K-12 Youth Program – Doctor for a Day (DFAD): Open to all students, the purpose of Doctor for a Day is to inspire and encourage educationally and economically under resourced students to consider medicine or other healthcare careers. Run almost entirely by UW School of Medicine students, Doctor for a Day events are made up of hands-on stations such as teaching physical exam skills, patient interviewing techniques, and suturing.   

Each program offers several ways physicians can engage with our students, including guest lectures, hands-on workshops, and attending community partner events.

Want to get in touch? Email the WIHSE Program email at wihse@uw.edu and a team member will get back to you as soon as possible. 

Participate in panel discussions

Panels on careers in medicine are coordinated for pre-medical students by Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED), the pre-medical honor society with chapters on many campuses in the WWAMI region. If there is no chapter in the college near you, consider helping the college start one. Panels are also coordinated for current medical students by the Medical Student Association and the Student Affairs Office at the Seattle site of the University of Washington School of Medicine and by the respective WWAMI Assistant Deans’ offices at the Spokane, Pullman, Anchorage, Bozeman, Laramie and Boise sites.

Opportunities for physician involvement

UW Medicine Alumni Association: A nonprofit, non-dues organization which cultivates unity among alumni of the UWSOM. If you graduated from the UWSOM, or one of its residency programs, check out the UW Medicine Alumni Association for a variety of ways to help prospective and current medical students. You can also contact them at 206.685.1875 or toll free 1.866.633.2586 or medalum@u.washington.edu for questions or more information.

University of Washington Alumni Association (UWAA): Offers opportunities for membership benefits and activities, learning, networking and news. Produces Viewpoints, a magazine published in partnership with the diversity community of the UW, Columns Magazine, and UW Newslinks.

SAID (Student-Alumni Informational Dinners): These dinners occur three times a year and match medical students interested in a given specialty with UWSOM alumni who practice in that specialty.

HOST (Help Our Students Travel): The HOST Program has helped hundreds of UW's fourth-year medical students find a friendly home while traveling for their residency interviews.

Health Sciences/UW Medicine Tour Guide: Guide eager high school students and future healthcare professionals through the Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Center and the UW Medical Center.

Community Health Advancement Program (CHAP): Work in a volunteer clinic alongside medical students and faculty.

Al-Shifa Clinic: Al-Shifa is a student-run clinic for underserved, predominantly immigrant communities.

Aloha Inn: The Aloha Inn provides transitional housing for 66 formerly homeless residents and has an inter-professional, student-run free clinic. Also see Students In The Community (SITC).

Introduction to Clinical Medicine course: Help teach physical exam, or evaluate medical students on their ability to perform physical exams and do case presentations.  Please contact Julie Calcavecchia for more information.

Observed Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs): Observe and evaluate second and fourth year medical students on their ability to perform basic clinical skills (physical exams, medical interviewing, clinical reasoning). Testing dates occur four times a year in winter, spring and summer. Contact Jennie Struijk if you are interested.

Global Health Group: Help promote international clinical and research experiences for medical students. Global Health Department

Preceptorships: Medical students may elect to complete one preceptorship in either their first or second year of medical school. A preceptorship consists of a minimum of eight four-hour sessions during which the student spends time with a physician in a clinic. You must be a member of the clinical faculty to be a preceptor.

Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (RUOP): The Rural Underserved opportunities Program (RUOP) is a four-week, elective immersion experience in community medicine for students between their first and second years of medical school. Students work side by side with local physicians in the WWAMI region providing healthcare to underserved populations.