Leveraging medical student teaching and communication skills to create a stronger workforce

Objectives: 1. Identify the importance of targeted outreach to middle school students to pursue careers in medicine. 2. Summarize best practices for implementing community outreach initiatives in an effort to increase the number of practitioners from backgrounds underrepresented in medicine. 3. Summarize best practices for formalized teaching and communication skills training for medical students participating in community outreach programs. 4. Generate potential session activities which incorporate principles of patient and family-centered care to engage families of middle school students in future outreach activities.