Grand Canyon University alumna Anna Yost introduced members of the university’s Project Management Club to the intersection of medical simulation and project management during a recent visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, according to a Mar. 16 report.
The trip aimed to give students practical insights into how project management applies across different fields, including medicine. The club’s president, Audrey Martin, said that Yost’s presentation offered her “a new perspective on what the medical field has to offer in terms of project management.”
During the visit, Yost—a Harvard Medical School MEDscience teacher—used a medical mannequin with lifelike features such as a heartbeat and blinking eyes to demonstrate teamwork and problem-solving in clinical scenarios. “How does project management play into this?” Yost said. “How, as a team, do you work to diagnose and treat this patient? And how can you bring in not only your own expertise to the environment but also lean on everybody else’s as well and work well to solve a problem together?”
Martin added about Yost: “There was a portion that I could tell was just where her heart was with education and teaching students, whether that’s in the medical field or as a program coordinator. She really wants students to grow and learn from these experiences.”
The club also attended a session by Erik Yost, research security officer at MIT and former Grand Canyon University student who led past research projects involving data from the International Space Station. Erik discussed his current role managing projects within scientific research teams.
Grand Canyon University is based in Phoenix, Arizona according to its official website. The university operates as a private Christian educational institution according to its official website that centers on Christian values while offering undergraduate and graduate programs in areas such as nursing, business, healthcare, along with flexible campus-based or online learning options according to its official website. It has received high rankings for its nursing programs among others as noted by Niche.com.
Reflecting on Anna’s presentation linking project management concepts with hands-on simulations, engineering major Gabe Quintana said: “It ties back to how one of our mottos is that everything can be a project. It was cool to see that in full effect.”
