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< Admission News Archive
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Opportunity to View Surgeries Impresses Students
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| Date: 2008.03.01 |
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| Orthopaedic surgeon Peter Roman, M.D. ’79, left, is joined by Amanda Pacheco ’09 and Brad St. Martin ’09 in an operating room at the Surgery Center at Lowell General Hospital-Chelmsford, where they had just observed Roman performing surgery. Roman hosted four students this year through Providence College’s Alumni Shadowing Program, through which students who wish to learn more about particular career fields observe alumni working in those fields at their workplaces. Roman has hosted students through the shadowing program for more than 10 years. |
Everything was going according to plan until his third year of medical school. That’s when Dr. Peter Roman ’79 realized he was about to embark on a completely unfamiliar path.
After majoring in biology at PC, Roman attended The Marquette Medical College of Wisconsin. With no doctors in his family to offer advice as to what lay ahead, Roman said he was “probably the least informed medical school student” at Marquette.
“When I learned that I had to stay over at the hospital in my third year, it was like an eyes-wide-open experience for me,” said Roman, who finished his post-graduate training at the University of Cincinnati in 1988. “I had never even thought of stuff like that.”
It’s that insight, and his boundless devotion to PC, that has led Roman to participate for more than 10 years in the Office of Career Services’ Alumni Shadowing Program.
Each year, that office’s Career Planning and Internship Program facilitates shadowing opportunities that help undergraduates explore career options by observing alumni at work. In January, more than 100 alumni provided some 200 shadowing opportunities to more than 100 students.
Depending on a student’s career field of interest, shadowing activities could include attending meetings, going on sales calls, or, as in the case of the four students Roman hosted during the recent winter break, observing surgeries and orthopaedic office hours.
“I think this program is a great opportunity for students to step out of their routines and look ahead to what it will be like if they become physicians,” said Roman, who was a four-year starter on PC’s men’s soccer team.
|The orthopaedic surgeon has been with Merrimack Valley Orthopaedic Associates in Lowell, Mass., since 1988, and served as chief of orthopaedic surgery at Lowell General Hospital. He has helped countless people recover from torn anterior cruciate ligament and Achilles tendon ruptures, treated many patients who suffered broken bones, and successfully replaced knees, shoulders, and hips.
One of the PC students who shadowed Roman this winter was Barrington, R.I., native Amanda Pacheco ’09.
“It’s a great way to spend a day in a professional’s shoes and experience what a day in the life of a physician is really like,” said Pacheco, noting she “scrubbed in” for five surgeries on her shadowing days, January 8 and 10.
“To be a few feet away as someone is being operated on was indescribable,” she continued. “I love being in such an environment and I admire the talent and compassion it requires, as well as the ability to help others and improve their quality of life.”
Being able to help people improve their lives is a big reason Roman chose to be an orthopaedic surgeon, and it’s also why he chose to become a mentor for so many PC students.
“I received a letter from the College and I thought the program sounded great,” said Roman. “If this helps transform them from top-notch high school students to top-notch college students, then I know that I have helped.”
Although Pacheco is still focused on becoming a pediatrician, another shadowing student, Simon Sarkisian ’10 of Warwick, R.I., said after observing three surgeries performed by Roman, he is considering becoming an orthopaedic surgeon.
“Because of this experience, I have grown as a student, both academically and personally, and I’ve learned how to deal with patients in various ways,” said the biology and psychology major.
Another student whose medical career goals were underscored by her time with Roman is Nicole Carloni ’11 of Cranston, R.I., who also witnessed three surgeries. The biology and pre-med major intends to become a neurosurgeon.
“I think seeing the surgeries firsthand helped me realize medicine is definitely the field I want to enter,” Carloni said.
The students’ reflections are music to the ears of Roman, who also hosted biology major Brad St. Martin ’09 of South Hamilton, Mass. Being with young students, he said, is a way for him to reconnect with the school that got him started down his path. It’s also a way for him to give back to young students, he said, “as Providence College gave me every opportunity I could ask for.”
Editor’s note: For information on the Alumni Shadowing Program or other programs coordinated by the Office of Career Services, go to www.providence.edu/Career/.
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