Community Outreach & Engagement 

At WISH, community engagement at a local and global scale are of paramount importance. WISH's commitment to science education drives its involvement with youth and school programs. WISH supports a dynamic outreach program to middle school, high school, and college aged students with an interest in the health sciences.

The goal of the WISH outreach program is to provide participants with an immersive simulation experience. WISH strives to share with each and every attendee a unique look into the world of simulation and the critical role it plays in improving patient safety and in healthcare education overall. WISH has worked with a number of groups over the year including, organizations such as the UW School of Medicine Center for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CEDI), focusing on marginalized communities that are typically underrepresented in STEM professions. Other examples include the UW Summer Medical Dental Education Program (SMDEP), The Northwest Indian College (NWIC), Inspiring Health Students Across the Nation (IHSAN), Y-Scholars from Garfield High School, the UW chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta, UW MHA students, the UW Bioengineering Clinical Exploration Program, Big Bend Community College, and many more.

The experience includes a tour of the facility followed by hands-on activities showcasing the entire spectrum of simulators that WISH houses – from task trainers that emulate suturing and laparoscopic surgery, all the way to high fidelity manikins that attendees interact with in a fully story-boarded medical emergency scenario guided by WISH technicians.  
 

Please see below for firsthand accounts from previous participants.

“Touring the UW WISH lab was definitely one of the most fascinating parts of my summer! It was super interesting and opened me up to the possibilities of being a surgeon. Thank you!”

“Thank you so much for letting us try the surgery tour. I was on an adrenaline rush for an hour!”

“I learned so much about how surgeons are trained. Thank you so much!”

“Thank you so much for the tour of the WISH lab! It was incredibly interesting and inspiring to see the training the surgical residents go through!”

“The WISH lab was awesome. Better than Grey’s Anatomy.”