This spring, Carina Alexis, secretary of Barry University’s Forensic Podiatry Club, and Marie Cherline Atilus, president of the Podiatry Skills Club, joined forces to create an interactive workshop focused on building community and practicing essential podiatric skills. Roughly 25 current podiatry students participated, with third- and fourth-year students serving as instructors alongside faculty and podiatrists from area hospitals. Thanks to the success of this year’s workshop, both Carina and Marie aspire to make the event an annual affair and hope it will evolve to feature even more skills stations. Here, Carina Alexis, who is now in her fourth year at the School of Podiatric Medicine, shares how she facilitated the successful workshop.
Carina Alexis, on initiating the first-ever “Forensic Podiatry Club and Podiatry Skills Club Workshop”
My parents always quoted Eleanor Roosevelt’s saying that “the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” When I was elected as the 2020-2021 secretary of Forensic Podiatry Club, my dream was to spotlight our club by creating events that would attract more members. Created in 2016, Forensic Club is fairly new, and most students are not aware of our presence. I had an idea to create a workshop that would be different from the others. Although there had been great workshops at Barry, I had yet participated in one that offered a variety of podiatry skills to students. With fourth years starting their externships soon and third years transitioning to their clinical year, I wanted to provide them with a platform by which they could brush up on their skills and learn new techniques. Ultimately, I created a workshop that encompassed six different podiatry skills stations in which students could rotate throughout.
To make such an event possible, I first reached out to Marie Cherline Atilus, the president of Podiatry Skills Club, and I asked her to collaborate with us. Once she agreed, we both set out to highlight our event. I reached out to Dr. Luis Rodriguez Anaya, who was more than happy to help facilitate. In addition, through my podiatry rotation at the Miami DVA, I spoke to Dr. Jeffrey Molinari about the workshop, and he offered to help. Marie reached out to Dr. Edgar Sy, from Jackson North Medical Center, and Dr. Marilyn Toribio, from Mercy Hospital, who are both BUSPM alumni.
With a team of experts behind us, Marie and I started planning the workshop; and, on Saturday, April 10, 2021, the event finally happened. We offered six different podiatry skills stations, which included hand ties, suturing, callus shaving, injections/hallux block, x-rays, and bandage wrapping. Students were rotating from station to station and were taught skills by a variety of tutors, from attending physicians to residents and third-year students. We had a lot of positive feedback from our event, and we hope to leave this legacy for future School of Podiatric Medicine students to keep creating the same event, making it bigger and bigger each year.
I would like to highlight the individuals who made our workshop such a great a success, particularly Dr. Luis A. Rodriguez Anaya, Dr Marilyn Toribio, Dr. Edgar Sy, Dr. Jeffrey Molinari, student doctors: Alexandria Sieloff, Shama Pervaiz, Apeksha Reddy, and Nicholas Igbinigie. Lastly, I personally want to thank student doctor Marie Atilus, without whose support this event would not have occurred.
Watch highlights from the spring 2021 workshop