Almost as soon as they step on campus, medical students at Oklahoma's largest medical school, the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City, are introduced to the Oklahoma AFP.

Almost as soon as they step on campus, medical students at Oklahoma's largest medical school, the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Oklahoma City, are introduced to the Oklahoma AFP via the school's Family and Community Medicine Interest Group.

Each September, the 160 or so first-year students, along with older medical students, are invited to a welcome luncheon organized by the school's Family and Community Medicine Interest Group, or FCMIG. The FCMIG is a student organization that's sponsored and supported by the Oklahoma chapter's Family Health Foundation.

Last month, about 60 students attended the welcome luncheon, said Kari Ames, deputy director for the Oklahoma AFP, and in addition to enjoying a free meal, students hear various faculty members speak about their specialty and the residency programs located in the state.

It's an important program, said Mina Sardashti, of Oklahoma City, a second-year medical student and student president of FCMIG. Many first-year students have inaccurate ideas about exactly what all family medicine encompasses, she explained.

"Sometimes, family medicine is preconceived as less specialized, and in reality, it is quite specialized," Sardashti said. "Students may not know that it's not just general medicine. Family medicine is very honed into specific skills and diagnostic techniques that other doctors in other fields don't get in their education."

The welcome lunch and subsequent monthly luncheons work to dispel common myths and enable students to explore what it's like to be a family doctor, Sardashti said.

This year, FCMIG student leaders requested more opportunities to connect with residents, whom the students generally perceive as being more relatable and less intimidating than faculty members. They also recommended topics for the residents to address. During the October luncheon, residents involved in mission work, both overseas and in Oklahoma, spoke at the lunch meeting.

"I always enjoy talking to students who are interested in mission work," said Tyler Whitaker, D.O. Chief resident at In His Image Family Medicine Residency in Tulsa, Whitaker spoke at the mission luncheon about why he's choosing to use his medical training as a form of ministry.

"One of the messages I was trying to get across is there's a great need, in the U.S. and around the world, for health care," Whitaker said. "There are great spiritual needs, too, and you can partner the two together. We've been given this great gift of medicine, and we should share it with those who are most in need."

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Strength of Oklahoma AFP Rooted in Student Programming