On Saturday, Oct. 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Health Professions Division, NSU’s Dr. Kiran C. Patel Colleges of Osteopathic and Allopathic Medicine chapters of the American Medical Women’s Association are hosting the Region Four’s AMWA conference.
At this conference, attendees have the opportunity to participate in two breakout lecture periods and a panel session with provided lunch and breakfast.
Each year, this annual regional conference is hosted by a different university, and this year, NSU will be hosting. According to Mashtura Hasan, second year graduate student in the M.D. program, having both NSU’s M.D. and D.O. chapters hosting this event is an opportunity with potential to impact the community.
“When we began planning this conference back in May, I knew NSU offered a unique location for us, with so many professional schools on the same campus. Our goal was to really capitalize on all of the health professional schools and undergraduate students. It is our first time hosting the regional ANWA conference and we wanted a large NSU presence from all stages of training,” said Courtney Hundinski, third-year graduate student in the D.O. program and region four director of AMWA.
This event, although catered to medical students or students interested in the medical field, is open to all students interested in networking and learning about this year’s theme “My Body and I,” which has a centralized focused on the human trafficking crisis in South Florida.
“We decided to go with this theme because South Florida has a huge human trafficking crisis and there is a really big opportunity for health professionals, doctors, physicians and even community members to be involved [and] really address these issues. We’ve invited all NSU students in hopes [of learning] from each other. There will be a lot of people with a lot of connections at this conference with individuals involved in the human trafficking crisis so if someone has a passion for this issue, this is a way to network with people in the field today. It’s really about networking and progressing the initiative that we have,” said Hasan.
According to Hundinski, this conference has the unique opportunity to not only host women physicians as speakers but also individuals with PHDs in various topics, as well as the Broward Sheriff’s office, to promote strong women in medicine.
“Women have not been that predominate in medicine and these types of fields for very long. We’ve come along way from just the few women physicians who started this [association] and now we have many chapters and many branches amongst many medical schools and universities as well as the national and international branches. A lot of things you do with AMWA are advancing women and empowering and being advocates for women in this field. We’ve come along way but there is a lot more that we can do,” said Hasan.
With this conference, both NSU AMWA chapters hope the event will promote interdisciplinary action on the human trafficking crisis, as well as promote collaborations between the region’s four institutions and help get NSU recognized in the organization and in the medical field.
Hasan hopes that this event will encourage students to engage in this issue as well as other issues with women in regards to the medical field and the interactions between patients and medical care providers.
“As a physician in the South Florida community, you will have and interact with patients who have some connection to human trafficking issues. You need to understand how to react and interact with these issues and be advocates for those patients. There are those in disadvantaged environments so it would be really educational to those in the medical field and how to be advocates for the patients and make their patients feel safe in their care,” said Hasan.
For students interested in attending this conference, register online at region4amwaconference.com or on the day of the event. Attendees are encouraged to follow a business casual dress code.
Photo printed with permission from D. Pucillo
