Enroll early for Summer 2027 to secure your preferred campus and program.
Work through patient-care simulations in this two-week Dartmouth medicine academy for high school students.
Instructor:
Course Description
A patient’s needs can change quickly. Working out what to do next means bringing evidence, communication, and the right people together.
In this course you will follow healthcare from prevention and wellness through emergency response and acute care. Cases, clinical demonstrations, simulations, and conversations with healthcare professionals connect nutrition, epidemiology, and public health with the decisions made for an individual patient. Simulated scenarios ask you to interpret evidence, prioritize next steps, and explain your reasoning under pressure, including in emergency and trauma care.
Healthcare is also a team effort. Compare the roles of physicians, nurses, emergency responders, therapists, researchers, and public-health professionals, and practice patient communication. Moving between a patient’s situation and a community’s needs helps you see how prevention and clinical care overlap. It’s a way to explore healthcare through the scientific reasoning, coordination, and compassion the work requires.
This two-week full-day academy for high school students is part of Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars, fully developed and run by Dartmouth and taught by Dartmouth faculty and expert instructors. Classes take place at Kimball Union Academy (KUA), a short drive from Dartmouth’s campus. Students receive the same curriculum, academic standards, and quality of instruction as those in courses on Dartmouth’s campus. Residential and commuter options are available.
KUA welcomes students as young as 14. It is a good fit for students interested in exploring medicine without the prerequisite experience required for more advanced courses.
Beyond the patient cases and clinical simulations, KUA’s close-knit campus offers a music studio, art studio, fitness center, indoor fields, and basketball and tennis courts. Afternoons and evenings include clubs and community-building competitions that make it easier to meet people and feel supported. Weekends bring a day on Dartmouth’s campus and an off-campus excursion. Students can combine serious academic exploration with a welcoming summer camp experience.
Instructor Bio
Shannon Staples holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and a BS in public health from Florida State University. In Medicine in Action, she introduces students to the full continuum of care, from prevention and wellness to emergency response. Through simulated patient scenarios, case studies, and conversations with healthcare professionals, students see how different roles work together to improve patient outcomes.
What You Will Do
• Connect prevention, nutrition, and epidemiology with community health
• Analyze patient cases using diagnostic reasoning
• Take part in clinical and emergency-response simulations
• Weigh next steps in trauma and acute-care scenarios
• Practice patient communication with a team
• Compare the roles of different healthcare professionals
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain how prevention, public health, and emergency care connect
• Use evidence to reason through a simulated patient’s needs
• Explain how communication and professional roles contribute to coordinated patient care
You’ll leave with experience working through patient cases and clinical simulations and a certificate of completion.
Why Clinical Medicine Skills Matter
Clinical medicine asks students to combine scientific evidence with communication, teamwork, and decisions made under time constraints. A patient problem may involve prevention, diagnosis, acute care, and follow-up rather than one isolated answer.
Cases and simulations develop structured reasoning and the ability to explain a next step. Comparing professional roles shows why good care depends on coordination among clinicians, responders, researchers, therapists, and public-health teams. These skills matter across medicine, nursing, emergency care, public health, biomedical science, and healthcare administration.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
If you’re drawn to patient care or wonder how a healthcare team decides what to do, this academy lets you explore both. Medicine, nursing, emergency response, public health, and biomedical science come into view through cases and simulations. You’ll make decisions with classmates and explain your reasoning, including when a situation calls for a quick response.
Recommended by 9 out of 10 Students
Based on students surveyed in the Dartmouth Precollege Summer Scholars program (2026)
Your Summer at Kimball Union Academy
This course is held at Kimball Union Academy (KUA), a short drive from Dartmouth’s campus. Students in these courses receive the same academic experience as students on Dartmouth’s campus: the same curriculum, the same academic standards, and the same quality of instruction.
We offer these courses at KUA so we can welcome students as young as 14, whom we’re unable to house on Dartmouth’s campus. The program is a great fit for students of any age who want a real introduction to a field of study, without needing the prerequisite experience our advanced courses require.
KUA’s campus provides outstanding facilities, including a music studio, art studio, fitness center, indoor fields, and basketball and tennis courts. This close-knit environment makes it easy for students to settle in, make friends, and feel supported from Day One. The result is a mix of rigorous academics and an authentic summer camp experience. Students spend their days in the classroom and their afternoons and evenings in clubs and community-building competitions. Weekends bring a day on Dartmouth’s campus and an off-campus excursion.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive
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