Students get ‘real world’ medical experience through Morris Catholic-Atlantic Health partnership

Science-minded students at Morris Catholic High School (MCHS) in Denville recently got a chance to try their hands at the present and — future of — cutting-edge medicine. On a visit to Morris­town Medical Center, they took turns operating the Di Vinci surgical robot.

These students learned that Di Vinci enables surgeons to operate on a patient remotely — anywhere from an adjoining room in the hospital’s surgical suite to halfway around the world. The robot makes small incisions during the arthroscopic surgery, which reduces recovery time.

This unique hands-on learning opportunity for these students is the result of a four-year-old partnership between MCHS and Atlantic Health System. It operates Morristown Medical and other local medical facilities and services. These scholars are part of the school’s Advanced Science Academy. It offers them a curriculum built around the “big four” natural sciences — biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental science — and extra-curricular opportunities so they can learn about careers in science.

Through this partnership, Morristown Medical staff members — some of them MCHS alumni — have visited the school to give presentations about medicine — or medical training — to students of the Academy interested in a career in the medical field. Students also traveled to Morristown Medical for hands-on learning opportunities, such as Di Vinci. Interactions between MCHS and Atlantic Health take place three times yearly.

“The Advanced Science Academy is coupled with experiential learning. This gives students an opportunity in high school to explore what they want to do for a career so they have more focus on where they want to go to college and what they want to study. It’s also a chance to see real-world professionals at work to see what’s possible,” said Father Peter Clarke, MCHS president, who came up with the idea for the partnership with the help of the school community.

Recently, MCHS students and staff learned how to stop severe bleeding. Soon, they will be trained to administer Naloxone, or NARCAN, a life-saving medication that can reverse an overdose of opioids if given in time. Also in the works are a presentation about orthopedics and pharmaceutical medicine and a talk about the future of careers in healthcare by Kevin Lenahan, Atlantic Health’s chief business and strategy officer and a MCHS graduate.

“Kevin encourages and inspires our students,” said Father Clarke. The experiences students receive through the partnership help them realize that jobs in the medical field go beyond ‘being a doctor,’” he said. “We want to prepare students for careers in medicine that haven’t been developed yet.”

MCHS’s partnership with Atlantic Health is one way the school strives to give students real-world experiences in their prospective careers. Last year, it started an engineering program with help from alumnus Bill Pote. He is the CEO and founder of MegaPhase, which supplies communications cables and connecting systems to the defense department, telecommunications companies, and the aerospace industry.

“Morris Catholic is so blessed to have so many accomplished alumni willing to help the school by giving students professional experiences in high school. They want to give back to the students and to the alma mater,” Father Clarke said.