The School of Medicine and Public Health and Department of Surgery is committed to being a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist learning environment and workplace. The Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) Visiting Student Scholarship Program, sponsored by the Department of Surgery, supports qualified 4th year medical students from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine in developing their clinical skills, abilities, and potential through a visiting rotation, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
Justin Rodriguez, a medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School, had an important realization when a patient presented with acute limb ischemia. Even though the patient understood and consented to the surgery, Rodriguez recognized that she was confused and overwhelmed by all the different medical personnel who were rushing around as they prepared to head to the operating room. This opened his eyes to the fact that there can be a lot happening with a patient’s care behind the scenes that they don’t know about.
“I am starting to better understand how this could distress patients, especially in potentially life-threatening situations,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez spoke with several residents at the University of Michigan Medical School who said the two best programs were their home institution and UW-Madison. This caused Rodriguez to become interested in this URiM program. Rodriguez was also interested in the program because of the connections between his institution and Wisconsin Surgery.
“I also know that UM and UW faculty and trainees have strong connections, and even our OR staff speak very highly of people like Dr. Rectenwald, who was here previously,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez was drawn to the field of vascular surgery because of the various options the field offers. He feels as though there are a lot of career mobility options that he can pursue and a lot of choices within this field.
“I quickly realized that I enjoyed the wide breadth of vascular surgery, including the mix between elective, urgent, and emergent cases, as well as open versus endovascular cases,” Rodriguez said.
During his rotation, Rodriguez hopes that he gets to meet a new patient population and understand the challenges they face while interacting with healthcare. He also hopes to experience some of the many positives that UW Health has to offer and take back what he can for his final year at the University of Michigan. Rodriguez is also interested in understanding how the daily workflow differs with regards to frequency of certain types of cases, doing open versus endovascular surgeries, and more.
In the future, Rodriguez would like to work with residents and medical students and he is interested in pursuing academic medicine.