Four Medicine Arrows:
This is the Sioux medicine wheel and is a symbol of enlightenment. Each arrow represents a direction of thought and a state of being to aspire:
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The College of Henricopolis Premedical Academy (CHPA) is a new year-long intensive course for college graduates preparing for medical school. Built on the first two years of the medical school curriculum, the course teaches concepts, study methods, and test-taking skills essential for success in medical school. CHPA will provide a vehicle for Native American and other students to prepare themselves for professional training and future careers in the health sciences. The program is patterned after the successful American Indian Pre-Law Summer Institute (AIPLSI) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which has had an over 90% success rate in sending its graduates on to law school. The Need The precipitous decline of the indigenous populations of the Americas beginning in the late sixteenth century was a result of the collapse of their health from introduced Old World pathogens, rather than of “conquest” by European or Euro-Americans . The onslaught of the invisible armies of microbial disease preceded by years the arrival of Europeans themselves in many areas of America. Today, over a century after treaties were signed ending the “Indian Wars” between the United States and tribal nations, the threats to the health of America’s indigenous peoples remain as dire as ever. The scourges of nutritional disease, infectious disease, inadequate prenatal care, mental illness, chronic disease, substance dependence, and premature death continue to run rampant through “Indian Country,” exacting a disproportionately greater toll on Native Americans than on any other population in America. It is long past time for the medical community and American society in general to take effective action to bring health standards of Native Americans up to the level of other Americans. This is a moral imperative. Unfortunately, the number of Native Americans enrolling in medical school is small and has sharply declined in the last 10 years. A goal of this program is to reverse that trend. Toward a Solution What can be done to produce good doctors who have the commitment to treat this most poorly served population in America? And even then, what about the much larger, and growing, urban populations of Native Americans who 1) do not live on reservations near IHS clinics, and/or 2) do not belong to “federally recognized” tribes, a much larger number than the IHS is designed or funded to deal with? Can Native American physicians and other health care workers be trained to meet this critical need? The New Program A professional school for health sciences dedicated to educating Native Americans to deal with the health problems of indigenous peoples wherever they may be living has been established by the Center for Biomedical Education of the nonprofit Integrative Centers for Science and Medicine. This is a one-year academic program for Native American college graduates and other qualified students who want to attend an established U.S. medical school. Curriculum The College of Henricopolis Premedical Academy will provide a vehicle for Native American and other college graduates to prepare themselves for professional training and future careers in the health sciences. CHPA will focus on a curriculum based on the first two years of professional education, incorporating a cross-cultural educational approach. The curriculum will utilize learning methods that accommodate different learning styles, minimize MWU (“memorizing without understanding”), maximize retention of important concepts, enhance problem-solving, increase cooperative and collaborative approaches to clinical problems, and promote cross-cultural functioning. These methods include use of narratives, inquiry based learning, laboratories, and online learning. History of the College of Henricopolis The Virginia Company tried to found the first institution of higher education in British America. In 1618, they obtained a royal charter for a proposed University of Henrico, and in following years set aside land for it at Henricus (Henricopolis) . By 1622, a school for Native Americans (Sioux indians) was established on the site. The college and much of the English settlement was destroyed during the Indian Massacre of 1622. In 1693, the College of William and Mary was established in Williamsburg. A plaque on the Wren Building, the college's first structure, ascribes the institution's origin to "the college proposed at Henrico." |