Faculty Information / Introduction

Introductory Letter

From The Krueger Foundation Medical Scholars Program 

Dear Doctors and other Medical Professionals,

We would like to provide you with an enjoyable opportunity to introduce upper level high school students to the art and science of Medicine. 

Norfolk Academy High School originated the Medical Scholars Program many years ago in which local high school students had the opportunity to match up with and shadow participating physicians in their offices or in the hospital to find out what it would be like to have a career in the health sciences, particularly as a healthcare provider. The pandemic required that this program be put on hold for a few years, but the founders wish to renew it now. 

We intend to start small with just two participating schools, Norfolk Academy and Bayside Academy. We have set up a framework where doctors can show on a digital calendar when they would be available to have two students visit their office for an hour or two, perhaps once or twice a week or a month. Hopefully, as time goes on, we will be able to expand to encompass more schools. Inpatient physicians and Sentara Virginia Beach General will also be participating so that students can choose to observe procedures like endoscopy and cardiac catheterization.

If your office tends to be very busy, we can provide a retired or semi-retired physician in the same specialty to host the students (no more than two at a time) while they are in your office to explain to them what is going on behind the scenes, the role of different members of your staff and what the doctor does as patients come and go. If we have permission from you and your patients, we may wish to interact with some of the patients discovering some of their medical problems and symptoms.

Prior to any students coming to your office, they will have received some basic training in patient privacy, professionalism, sterile technique, handwashing, how to take vital signs and basic CPR training, etc.

We will try not to interrupt patient flow any more than absolutely necessary. We want this to be an enjoyable experience for you, your staff and the students. If you have time to spend with the students yourself and if you don’t need to have the hosting doctor there, you can choose not to have him or her there. We just don’t want the students to be neglected.

This experience plus the curriculum they are receiving at school will give them the basic information they need to help decide if medicine would be a good career for them. We are hopeful that this program would not only broaden their education, but also increase the chance that some of them will eventually join the healthcare workforce in our area.

We have loosely structured the program to be like a 'University,' in which we have 'Professors' (retired physicians serving as hosts for the students who are visiting the offices), and 'Faculty' (practicing physicians, or other health professionals, offering their time and expertise to teach students what the practice of medicine is like on the inside).

If you are ready, willing and able to impart your knowledge and wisdom to future generations, please let us know of your willingness to participate and we will get the process started for you. 

If you wish to register as a Faculty member now, please move on to the Faculty Registration page.

Thank you so much for your attention and consideration. We hope to see your name on our roster of participating physicians soon.

If you have any questions, please send us an email or call 757-816-8399.

Best Regards,

The Krueger Foundation

medicalscholars363@gmail.com

Dr. Andrew Dickenson

Dr. Daniel Dickenson

Dr. Deepak Talreja

Dr. Greg Warth