Jared Kennedy
NEWS EDITOR
The University of Nebraska at Omaha Pre-Health Professionals Club has developed an new initiative called the Future Healthcare Professionals of Nebraska. FHPN reaches out to high schools across the state of Nebraska with the goal of providing aspiring and promising high school students with information about pursuing careers in healthcare.
UNO senior Seif Nasir is the president of the PreHealth Professionals Club. He says FHPN has already given presentations at local high schools and rural towns.
“The organization does this [provides information to high school students] by giving talks and providing online resources to high school students across the state,” Nasir said.
Nasir said as president of the club he is in charge of making sure premed students have access to professionals in the medical field.
“My job is to organize talks and activities with healthcare professionals for pre-health students at UNO to attend,” Nasir said. “For example, we invite doctors to come and talk to pre medical students about careers in medicine, or doctors of physical therapy to come and talk to students who want to pursue a career in physical therapy.
According to census data, Nebraska is a rural state with a population quickly approaching 2 million people. Nasir said although Omaha is by far the most populated city in the state, a substantial portion of Nebraska’s population lives in rural cities and towns such as Beatrice, Milford, Imperial, Fairbury, and Friend, among many others.
“Many of these rural cities and towns have only indirect access to, and are in need of, healthcare professionals, and history has revealed that big-city-trained physicians are unlikely to decide to practice medicine in rural towns and villages,” Nasir said. “Thus, for these smaller cities, the best hopes for gaining access to a well-educated physician or healthcare professional is having a member of their own community undergo training and eventually return to their city to practice medicine among their fellow citizens.”
Nasir said the initiative is still in its early stages and the organization is actively seeking volunteers who would be interested in giving talks for and providing efforts towards the initiative.
“Ultimately, the Future Healthcare Professionals of Nebraska would like to expand their program to include other clubs and organizations on campus for the purposes of advertising, technology, and brand design,” Nasir said.
For more information about the club, and to find out how to get involved visit their website at nebraskaprehealth.com, or contact Nasir at snasir@unomaha.edu or unoprehealth@gmail.com.
Nasir said talks have been delivered in Omaha and in Fairbury with more to come.
“I am working to expand the scope of our group,” Nasir said.
