Robinson shows children of the Young Achievers Foundation how to perform typical anethesiological procedures on a full-body skeleton model at the UF Professional Outreach Day held June 23. Photo by Priscilla Santos

Hundreds of area elementary school students visited the UF campus, donned blue scrubs and got a glimpse of what it would be like to be a doctor when they grow up.

Albert R. Robinson, M.D., an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the College of Medicine, organized the medical session of the at Pugh Hall. The event is sponsored each year by the Young Achievers Foundation, a non-profit organization that seeks to encourage the educational development of disadvantaged teens and children.

Photo by Priscilla Santos

Robinson brought a full body skeleton model, along with a brain, eye, ear and heart models that medical students use in their training to help the elementary school students get a “feel” for working with patients.

It’s what he likes to call “training tomorrow’s physicians, especially tomorrow’s anesthesiologists,” he said.

“I thoroughly enjoy working with the kids, and it was great to have the opportunity to expose them to some of the activities an anesthesiologist performs,” Robinson said. “Equally satisfying was encouraging them to explore medical professions, such as becoming a surgeon, cardiologist, family medicine physician, pediatrician, neurosurgeon or an orthopedic surgeon.”

For Robinson, the best part was seeing the children dressed in scrubs with smiles on their faces as they pretended to be doctors. He also enjoyed hearing some of the children express how they plan to be a doctor when they grow up.

Photo by Priscilla Santos

“It truly showed that you’re never too young to start working toward a career,” he says. “We have to begin preparing their young minds today and not wait until they are in college and high school to ask them ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’”