Teen has doctoring in mind after attending youth forum

When she was younger, Kelly McKenna, who is now 15, would ask her pediatricians: "Where did you get your M.D.? Did you like the school? Do you like your job? What do you do all day?"

She'd scribble on a neighbor's prescription pad and play with the toy doctor's kit her parents bought her.

This summer, the young parishioner of St. Matthew's Church in Voorheesville had the opportunity to take her curiosity to a new level as a delegate to the National Youth Leadership Forum in Medicine, which took place at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Examination

The ten-day forum provided Kelly, a student at Voorheesville High School, with the chance to experience a doctor's life first-hand through presentations by physicians, hands-on activities, hospital tours and ethical debates.

She spoke one-on-one with nurses, doctors, specialists, technicians and administrators. Medical students served as group facilitators and counselors.

"The med-school students talked about how hard [school] is -- and how much in debt they are!" remarked Kelly, who heard some financial figures that staggered her. "They also said it was the best thing they did with their lives. That brought a little hope for me."

Diagnosis

Kelly also participated in "problem-based learning" sessions, in which the students were given a fictional patient's symptoms and case histories, and were required to diagnose and develop treatment.

That required a lot of research, said Kelly -- including backtracking, re-checking and ensuring that the patient wasn't being treated for the wrong illness.

They also learned how difficult it is to care for a gaping wound when they were given materials -- stitches and suturing needles -- to sew up two sides of a peeled banana, which simulated the toughness of human skin.

"That was a highlight," she commented. "It was hard."

Inside out

At one teaching hospital, the forum participants viewed a cadaver used by medical students to learn about how the human body works.

Kelly, "fascinated with the way everything fit together," was interested in the anatomical differences between smokers and non-smokers, as well as the effect of disease on certain internal organs.

"It was interesting to see what a real lung looks like," she said. "We got to see all the veins running through the body -- how everything comes together and how it all works."

Prognosis

A self-described "people person," Kelly looks forward to a career in which she can "touch so many people a day. If I could make an impact, that would be great. That's really what I like to do. Being a doctor is not just a job you go to. Your heart has to be in it. You have to be on-call all the time.

"I remember being asked in fifth grade what I'd be doing in 20 years. I said, 'med school.' Twenty years from now? My options are still open. I'm still young."

(Kelly was impressed with the presentation given by an endocrinologist and might go into that field. She is attracted to the work itself as well as the ability to connect with patients over a long period of time. "I remember being in ninth-grade biology and learning about hormones, and really loving that," she said.)

At St. Matthew's parish in Voorheesville, Kelly McKenna is an active member of the youth group and a lector. She has also completed the Albany Diocese's Christian Leadership Institute, which she remembers as an experience that let her see a "whole new vision of Church."

The week after CLI, "the Mass meant something new to me," she said. "Not many kids sing and participate in Mass, but that's what I was taught by my parents. I'm always in the pew, singing away."

At Voorheesville High, she's class president, runs varsity track and cross-country, is a bassoonist in the school band, participates in ski club and Model UN, and plays the piano. (KD)

(9/16/04)