ASPET was pleased to participate in Health Professions Week (HPW) on November 6 – 10, 2017. HPW is an exciting, free, week-long virtual event for high school and college students interested in learning more about careers in health professions. ASPET joined 19 other professional societies in educating students about different career paths in the health professions.
Schedule of Events
| Monday, November 6 | Keynote Address – Kick off the week by attending the keynote address at 2pm Eastern. This year’s keynote speaker is Kameron Matthews MD, JD, FAAFP, Deputy Executive Director of Provider Relations and Services in the Office of Community Care at the Veterans Health Administration in Washington, DC. |
| Tuesday, November 7 | Treasure Hunt – Discover what various health care professionals do by visiting each professional society’s website. Find the virtual #HPWGold coin on each site and share it on your social media accounts to be entered into a drawing to win great prizes. |
| Wednesday, November 8 | Health Professions Virtual Fair – High school students, undergraduate students, guidance counselors, teachers, and advisors are invited to join the virtual fair where they can chat live with pharmacologists and educators to learn more about pharmacology. Ask questions about what life as a scientist is like, how they manage their careers, and why they chose pharmacology as a profession. |
| Thursday, November 9 | Community Connect Day – Visit a local community event near you to learn more about career possibilities in the health professions. Share your experience on social media and be entered into a drawing to win great prizes. A full list of Community Connect Day events is listed on the HPW website. |
| Friday, November 10 | A Day in the Life – Continue exploring pharmacology and other health professions by watching short TED-like videos. The videos will premiere on the HPW YouTube channel and will be exclusively available to HPW attendees. |
Students interested in learning more about pharmacology and its career opportunities may register for this FREE event.
Learn more about HPW.
ASPET Members: Get Involved
In order to make this week successful, ASPET is seeking volunteers from our membership. There are many ways that members can get involved.
Promote Health Professions Week
HPW is a FREE event to all high school students, undergraduate students, guidance counselors, teachers, and advisors. Help promote this important event by letting your community know about this event. Tell your neighbors, friends, colleagues, and family about the event and tell them to register to learn more about pharmacology and other health professions. A great way to get the word out is by posting information about this event on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Contact ASPET’s marketing department for additional promotional materials (flyers, emails, etc.)
Download the HPW flyer to post in your department.
Volunteer at the Virtual Fair
ASPET is seeking volunteers to participate in the virtual fair. Volunteers will be responsible for logging into the virtual booth and answering any attendee questions through a chat room. 12 one-hour volunteer slots are available between 9 AM and 9 PM EST on Wednesday, November 8. If you would like to participate, please contact ASPET’s education department.
Host a Community Connect Day Event
Institutions are invited to host on-campus or community events to actively engage high school and college students. By hosting an event on November 9, HPW will promote your event to all registered attendees.
How to get involved:
Start planning an event by following these steps:
- Decide which professions on campus will participate. Bonus points for interprofessional events!
- Select a location, time, and audience.
- Set an agenda and find speakers and volunteers.
- Market the event. HPW will promote the event to all registered attendees, but each Community Connect Day should also take steps to proactively market both the physical event and HPW overall to prospective health professionals in their city.
Plan an HPW community event for November 9. Here are some items to consider:
- Be creative. Consider interactive or simulated workshops on team-based care, interprofessional collaboration and more to expose interested students to the different health professions’ roles and responsibilities.
- Consider diversity. It’s important to think about the diversity of student participants and health professions that are represented. Engage potential students from underserved areas of your community. Invite other health professions from your campus or neighboring universities to collaborate in this event—there are 20 health professions participating in Health Professions Week 2017.
- Use current health professions students. Students are our best ambassadors; they can help plan and execute an event. Reach out to your college’s health professions student organizations for assistance.
- Keep it educational. Create activities to help prospective students understand the necessary steps to prepare for health professions education and a career as a health care provider.
- Think outside the box for marketing. Market to area high school students and counselors, as well as undergrads and health professions advisors in all areas of your community
- Employ social media. Promote your event and Health Professions Week via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat using the hash tag #HPW2017.
- Engage all members of campus. Your event doesn’t have to be planned and executed in a vacuum. Use undergraduate admissions staff (think recruitment!), health professions advisors, student organizations and career services as partners in creating your event.
When you have planned an event in coordination with Health Professions Week, please complete this form so we can share the information with interested participants. The earlier the event is submitted, the more HPW can help you market.
Create a Video
ASPET is seeking volunteers to create a short TED-like video to add to the HPW A Day in the Life collection. The short videos (2-3 minutes) are meant to spark conversations and interest in pharmacology as a career choice. These videos do NOT need to be studio-quality – in fact, informal videos taken with your phone are encouraged. Possible topics for videos include:
- Why I chose this profession
- My favorite part of the job
- Logistics: the hours, my schedule
- Interprofessional: what other professions do I interface with
- The challenges to working in this profession and how I overcome them
- A case study
If you are interested in submitting a video, please contact ASPET’s education department.