Advice for Pre-Health High School Students

By Ahmad Rhodes

There are several ways to satisfy an interest in healthcare. First, it is recommended to be open-minded. The medical field is very broad, having careers from medical administration, dentistry, patient care, therapeutics, emergency services, and more.

As a high schooler, taking AP math and science courses is recommended. If your school has health science, you would need to take Intro to Healthcare Science, a course where you get an introduction to anatomy, medical math, HOSA, careers in healthcare, medical terminology, health delivery, and growth and development. If you don’t have a health science program, you can take a dual enrollment health science course. I recommend physics, calculus, statistics, and anatomy. You can also take Essentials of Healthcare Science, an anatomy-based course that not only focuses on physiology, but also teaches pathophysiology on how diseases are treated.

During your junior or senior year, you can take Patient Care Fundamentals, a course where you learn nursing skills and how to act in a clinical setting. At the end of the course, you can take the exam to become a certified nursing assistant (CNA) or a patient care technician (PCT). A CNA provides assisted living for patients by helping with bathing, eating, grooming, and transporting. A PCT can do a little more than CNAs. They can draw blood and perform advanced procedures. Some schools offer these healthcare courses. The EMT, dental science, and medical office collaborate with local colleges in a pharmacy technology program at the end of the pathway. In high school, doing well in all of your core subjects such as literature, biology, chemistry, physics, and calculus will prepare you for college courses. You should also consider joining HOSA, which is a club for students interested in healthcare that competes in different events. HOSA members go to meetings with health professionals and learn medical concepts, such as medical math, first aid, and dentistry. Some middle schools have health science classes as well.

If you want to become a doctor, you should consider BS/MD programs or BA/MD programs. These programs allow you to get a conditional acceptance to medical school in high school. These are things you can do if you are interested in the medical field while you are in high school.