[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 25 (Wednesday, February 8, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                       SO YOU WANT TO BE A DOCTOR

                                 ______


                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, February 8, 1995
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, almost everyone today agrees that our health 
care system requires some reform and that encouraging more young people 
to choose a career in medicine, particularly primary care medicine, is 
a critical element of that reform.
  One family physician in my district, Dr. Fred Hurst, is proving that 
we can pursue this goal without relying on the heavy hand of the 
Federal Government to set quotas for various medical specialties.
  Last year, Dr. Hurst started a program called FuturDOCS, which 
enables talented high school students interested in medicine to get 
first-hand experience working with patients at St. Mary's Medical 
Center in Knoxville.
  These students have the opportunity to observe and participate in 
various different types of treatments, from prenatal care to helping 
heart attack victims recover to complicated surgeries. This unique 
experience not only provides them with valuable insight into a 
potential future career, but also benefits the patients at St. Mary's, 
who clearly enjoy having them around.
  FuturDOCS has been such an unqualified success that numerous other 
hospitals, both in Tennessee and across the country, are designing 
similar programs of their own. In my view, FuturDOCS is a perfect 
example of what enterprising individuals who care enough to make a 
difference can do without turning to the Federal Government to solve 
all of our problems for us.
  I commend to my colleagues and other readers of the Record the 
following article describing the FuturDOCS program, which appeared in 
the Knoxville News-Sentinel's Sunday magazine on Christmas Day.
                       So You Want To Be a Doctor

                           (By Michael Ryan)

       When I was in high school, I wanted to be a doctor,'' Fred 
     Hurst told me. ``But nobody in my family had ever been a 
     physician, and I lived in a small town about 40 miles from 
     Knoxville.'' Hurst wanted to learn more about what a doctor 
     does, but he was stymied. ``To gain entry to the local 
     hospital, I had to join the Future Nurses' Club,'' he 
     recalled. ``I decided then that, if I ever had the chance, I 
     would start a program to interest young people in primary 
     care.''
       Encouraged by his parents, Hurst went to college, then 
     medical school. Last year, at age 46, Dr. Hurst fulfilled the 
     commitment he'd made as a youth. The need, as he saw it, was 
     obvious: Only about one-third of the doctors in America today 
     are primary-care physicians; almost two-thirds are 
     specialists. The federal government and the American Medical 
     Association agree that at least half of our physicians should 
     be primary-care doctors. But four-fifths of today's medical 
     students are planning to specialize, which will make the 
     imbalance even worse.
       ``We had to show young people that they can have a 
     gratifying future in service to their fellow humans--and 
     handle 95 percent of the ailments of their patients--as 
     primary-care physicians,''' said Hurst
       His solution was FutrDOCS, a program that brings talented 
     high school juniors and seniors into St. Mary's Medical 
     Center in Knoxille, where he is chief of staff. They see what 
     doctors actually do and later serve in summer internships, 
     where they ``shadow'' primary-care physicians in all of the 
     many tasks doctors perform.
       Last year, Trang Nguyen, 18, helped administer a sonogram 
     at St. Mary's after Annette Neubert, a pregnant patient who 
     is also a nurse, encouraged her to try her hand at the 
     painless, risk-free procedure. Nguyen handled the 
     sophisticated equipment as if she had performed the procedure 
     before. ``Can you find the baby's head?'' asked Dr. Paula 
     Peeden, 36, an obstetrician/gynecologist. The student 
     expertly located the tiny head moving back and forth deep 
     within Neubert's womb.
       ``Have you chosen a name yet?'' Nguyen asked with an easy 
     bedside manner. ``Courtney,'' Neubert said with a smile.
       Since FutrDOCS began last year, 125 students have completed 
     the program. This year, about 70 Knoxville-area students took 
     part. Each participating high school nominates four 
     outstanding students, based on their academic record, their 
     interest in pursuing a career in medicine and their desire to 
     help people. FutrDOCS is funded solely by St. Mary's Medical 
     Center.
       I went to St. Mary's on a day when eight FutrDOCS were 
     visiting. I was surprised to learn that these young people 
     saw all sides of the medical practice--its failures and 
     limits as well as its successes. They accompanied Dr. Hurst 
     on his rounds, meeting a heart-attack victim headed for full 
     recovery but also seeing a man who had been left semi-
     comatose and incoherent by a stroke, beyond the help of 
     modern medicine. In an operating room, they watched surgeons 
     struggle to repair the body of a drunk driver with a damaged 
     kidney,
      pelvis, bladder and spleen, ``Medicine isn't always 
     glamorous,'' FutrDOC Emily Herbert, 17, a senior at Karns 
     High School in Knoxville, told me after that experience. 
     ``But ultimately it's about helping people.''
       The patients seem to enjoy having the teenagers around. 
     ``Without a doubt,'' said Dr. Hurst, ``the patients are 
     thrilled to be visited by and see the concern of these 
     students.'' Diane Holloway, the surgical nursing supervisor 
     at St. Mary's, also thinks highly of FutrDOCS--even though it 
     obliges her to shoehorn visitors into her crowded operating 
     rooms. ``It's good for them to get this kind of experience 
     early,'' she said.
       Students in the program also learn what doctors think. The 
     group sat down for a meeting with Dr. Douglas Leahy, 46, an 
     internist who began his medical career the hard way--as an 
     orderly at St. Mary's 30 years ago. Doctors make a decent 
     income, but there are a lot of things you can make a lot of 
     more money in,'' he told the students. ``Medicine is an 
     opportunity to be a part of people's lives. You can make 
     their lives better. I think that's what drives most 
     doctors.''
       FutrDOCS offers students a chance to see what they, as 
     tomorrow's physicians, might want to do with their own 
     careers. ``It helped me to focus,'' said Mark Buckingham, 18, 
     now a freshman at Notre Dame. For Trang Nguyen, FutrDOCS 
     provided insight into a long-cherished dream. ``I came to 
     this country when I was 5, from Vietnam,'' she said. ``It was 
     my parents' dream that I become a doctor, and that was a 
     challenge to me. This has helped me discover that I really 
     want to be a pediatrician. I just love kids,'' Nguyen, now 
     19, is a freshman at the University of Tennessee.
       Fred Hurst has received at least 100 inquiries about the 
     program from more than 35 states. Next year, 15 additional 
     schools in suburban and rural areas of Tennessee will join 
     FutrDOCS. Institutions in New York and Pennsylvania, as well 
     as several Tennessee medical centers, may start their own 
     programs. ``My goal is to expand this program throughout the 
     nation,'' said Dr. Hurst.
       Early in my visit, Bryce Bowling, a FutrDOC, approached me 
     to say how terrific he thought the program was. Bowling, 18, 
     is now a freshman at the University of Tennessee. ``My dad 
     has had two surgeries on his heart,'' he told me. ``I owe a 
     debt to medicine. Doctors saved his life.'' That, I realized, 
     was the greatest thing FutrDOCS has to offer young people: It 
     shows them a way to give something back.
     

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