Event inspires female students to pursue orthopaedics

Thirty-seven young women from across Nebraska gathered at UNMC on Nov. 17 to learn from female orthopaedic surgeons and engineers and to try their hand at the work these women do every day.

The students learned to suture using pigs’ feet.

This is the fifth year the UNMC Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation has sponsored the daylong Perry Outreach Program, which aims to inspire female high school students to pursue careers in the male-dominated fields of orthopaedic surgery and engineering. The Delaware-based organization partners with medical centers and universities to hold events at more than 30 locations nationwide each year.

The students learned to suture using pigs’ feet, performed a knee arthroscopy on replicas of human bones and gained hands-on experience in simple and complex fracture repair with plates and intramedullary nails.

“It’s great to see how engaged they become while performing their operations,” said Susan Scherl, M.D., professor of orthopaedic surgery at UNMC and pediatric orthopaedic surgeon at Children’s Hospital & Medical Center. “The hope is that the program will open their eyes to the possibility of a career in orthopaedics or biomechanical engineering in particular, but also medicine and the STEM fields in general.”

The Perry Outreach Program was founded in 2009 to honor Jacquelin Perry, M.D., one of the first female orthopaedic surgeons in the country. Eighty-five percent of the more than 7,500 program alumnae have gone on to choose STEM majors. Of these, 60 percent majored in biosciences and 25 percent choose engineering majors.

Held at the Lauritzen Outpatient Center, this year’s program drew students from communities across the state, including Beatrice, Bellevue, Bennington, Blair, Cozad, Fremont, Grand Island, Hastings, Norfolk, North Platte, Omaha, Ponca and Valley.

In addition to the mock surgeries, participants also heard from notable Omaha-area women in medicine and engineering and had the opportunity to ask questions of volunteers during a Q&A session.

Dr. Scherl encouraged young women to pursue the rewarding field of orthopaedics and shared her own path to becoming a surgeon. Amelia Lanier, Ph.D., outreach coordinator for the Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, spoke to participants about engineering careers, research and education.