Pre-Health Coursework
Learn more about courses you can take to prepare for your desired health profession.
Prepare for Pre-health
Students can prepare for health professions.
What to Expect
Pre-Health Experience
Learn more about clinical, research, study abroad, and service opportunities at Knox.
JUMP Medical Immersion
Every year, the Vovis Center sends a small group of pre-health students to the JUMP Medical Immersion Program at University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria’s (UICOMP) JUMP Trading and Simulation Center. This fully funded, two week immersive “medical boot camp” provides students interested in the health professions an opportunity to experience firsthand the work that healthcare professionals engage in on an everyday basis, from interacting with patients, conducting physical exams, and diagnosing illness, to problem-solving and critical thinking within a team.
JUMP is a hands-on program allowing students to practice and apply many clinical skills. Students are taught intubation, suturing, ultrasound, physical exams, and more, and use these skills on simulated patient actors, cadavers, and robotic patient dummies. By the end of the two weeks, students are able to lead their own simulated patient encounters and have an understanding of basic diagnoses.
Throughout the program, students learn from a variety of physicians, providers, and administrators at OSF Peoria through lectures and presentations. Knox students observe different specialties’ grand rounds, in which providers present the medical problems and treatment of their patients to other residents, doctors, and medical students. Students also spend an afternoon visiting the UICOMP campus and talking with current medical students.
At the end of the program, students take an OSCE exam, the same tests that medical students take throughout their first and second years. The OSCE experience allows pre-health students to understand what it’s like to be a medical student.
This program takes place during the two weeks in June immediately following Knox graduation. Pre-health students are able to apply to this program in their first to junior years. The application typically goes live in January and is due at the beginning of April.
