More than 45 students are partaking in summer internships for the month of June after completing their first year at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine.
The internships occur at Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak and Troy, as well as on Oakland University’s campus and in the community – all offering students an opportunity to get hands-on experiences that are related to the field of medicine.
Director of Service Learning Jean Szura, Ph.D., said these early experiences are important for students as it allows them to synthesize the education they received this past year with real-world experiences.
“The availability of preceptors differs from year to year, so the number of experiences will ebb and flow,” she said. “We hope to continue to be able to offer as robust of a 'menu' of options as we were this year, if not even more.”
Szura notes that many of the internships provide students with a chance to hone their research skills as they work with the faculty.
For those students who are taking community internships and educational internships, they are different from the other internships because they occur outside of the hospital. And because of that, the internships mainly aren’t clinical in nature.
“But that doesn't mean there aren't important health related issues to tackle or health education-related issues.
It helps students to understand all of the different areas that health can have an impact on people and for this reason they are equally as important,” Szura added.
Rising M2 Erin Mueller was among a group of four who had educational internships in OUWB’s anatomy lab under the guidance of Malli Barremkala, M.D., associate professor, Department of Foundational Medical Studies.
Mueller worked on creating a module specific to a female pelvis. The module will incorporate precise photos and labels to make things easier for incoming M1s. Illustrations also will be created using the information.
“I definitely struggled with pelvis because it’s a hard dissection and we only had two hours…this has taken me a week,” she said. “Hopefully this module will be helpful to others and provide access to a deeper kind of dissection without having to spend too much time in the lab.”
Beaumont-based internships
This year, students have been working in a variety of departments, ranging from general surgery to infectious diseases.
Garrett Perozich is in the infectious disease internship at Beaumont, Royal Oak and says his favorite part is taking what he’s learned in the classroom and applying it to real patients.
“As helpful as it is to learn about diseases in the classroom, it is much more memorable to see a patient present with the same disease, and it allows me to solidify the content I’ve learned in lecture,” he said. “This internship has reignited my passion to become a physician, and has allowed me to queue myself into the important learning points to focus on when I begin my M2 year.”
A typical day for Perozich involves doing rounds with the fellow and seeing new patients who are being consulted by the infectious disease medical team then later on joining a resident on service for another round. He has also had the opportunity to participate in antibiotic stewardship lectures and rotate through the microbiology lab.
On the general surgery side, Corey Shafer is at Beaumont, Troy working with private practice surgeons observing cases in the O.R. and making rounds on the inpatients with the surgeons. Shafer finds the unique experience of getting one-on-one time with the surgeons and participating in the patient care experience enriching.
“This experience will help me in the short term as an M3, in which I am developing skills that I can use to help me be successful in my clerkships,” Shafer said. “It will also help me in the long run, by giving me early exposure to surgical patient care and how I can use the outside-the-classroom clinical knowledge that I have gained to be a more caring and efficient physician in the future.”
For Meaghan Race, the experience solidifies her desire to pursue physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) as a specialty. During the internship at Beaumont, Royal Oak, Race has been working with different services such as private practice, inpatient rehabilitation and different clinics including musculoskeletal, EMG, and prosthetics and orthotics.
“This opportunity has allowed me to better understand the day-to-day responsibilities of physiatrists and exposed me to different patient populations in which I will work with in the future,” Race said.
She highlighted the lunch and learn sessions as well as exposure to physicians as a great foundation going into clinical rotations for her M3 and M4 years.
“This experience has afforded me (the opportunity) to explore what subspecialities fit my strengths.
Overall, I have been able to apply the knowledge obtained in the classroom to a clinic setting,” she said.
Jared Dixon is in the diagnostic radiology department at Beaumont, Royal Oak, and has mainly been shadowing due to the nature of his specialty. He spends most of his time in a reading room with a resident, but gets involved by looking up the patient's history. As a result, he is learning about fMRI and DTI studies.
The fMRI case was his favorite part of the internship (so far) but he also enjoyed his week in neuroradiology.
“I really enjoy being able to see the whole process from when the scans were taken until the end. Plus, I was with a really great attending (physician) the whole time who explained the whole process to me very well,” Dixon said.
“There have been some really incredible days, and then there have been some tough days, and I think it boils down to the resident that you are paired with. The vast majority of the people that I have had contact with though have been very helpful and are eager to show me interesting cases,” he added.
The students will create posters based on their experiences and will present them to the incoming Class of 2026 students in August.
To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.
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