My STEP Signature Project was a service trip to Harlingen, Texas to work with Culture of Life Ministries, a free medical clinic that provides medical services to the Harlingen community.  During the week volunteering at the clinic, I assisted in multiple different areas, such as taking patient vitals, shadowing the doctors and nurses, helping with patient check-in, and calling pharmacies to fill prescriptions.  Through all of these activities, the main focus was on meeting the community and people of Harlingen.

One of my assumptions that was changed during this project was through the patient-provider relationship.  One of my assumptions about healthcare was it was very problem-solving focused.  It was the idea that when a patient came in with a medical problem, the focus was mainly on the problem and not on the patient.  Watching the doctors (and even the nurses and volunteers) at the clinic over the week, I realized how important building a relationship with each patient was, and how the relationship is more than just treating a patient’s medical problem.

Another result of this STEP Signature Project was a change in understanding myself.  I would watch these doctors, nurses, and volunteers interact with patients, and I realized that I can sometimes be too focused on fixing problems and being efficient.  In the process, that sometimes means that I neglect some of my soft skills, especially when it comes to building a relationship and connecting with each patient on a personal level.  Through the week, I learned how to “slow down” in a sense and be able to learn about patients wholistically and see them as a person, instead of just trying to help with their medical problems.

One of the events and interactions that helped me to see that sometimes I can be very focused on efficiency was when I was working on the administration side of things and helping check-in and triage.  That was one of the first days in the clinic, so I hadn’t really had an opportunity to shadow the doctors or interact much with the patients.  About halfway through the day, I started getting worried about the speed that the doctor was seeing the patients.  When I was talking with another trip participant at the end of the day, they were talking about how inspiring it was to shadow Dr. Robinson and how he was so easily able to connect with each patient, learn about them, and be able to reassure them.

The next day helped me to better understand the importance of a patient-provider relationship.  I had the opportunity to shadow the doctor for a little bit, and I was in awe watching how at ease and how Dr. Robinson truly cared for each and every one of the patients that walked through his clinic doors.  There were some patients that he had seen before, and he would ask about how their job, family, life, etc. was going and somehow remembered conversations and life stories of these patients from the last time that he saw them.  For other patients that he hadn’t seen before, he was able to learn so much about them in a short time, and learn about their life, fears, and worries.  I saw that he truly cared about the people he saw.  I think that those people also saw that, and that was one of the reasons they were able to open up to him so much and feel comfortable and reassured by him.

Another interaction was our visit to a nursing home.  Dr. Robinson (one of the doctors at Culture of Life Ministries) regularly goes to this nursing home to make house calls for the residents.  We went with him on one of his house calls, and seeing the joy of the residents when we visited was something I’ll always remember.  One of the ladies kept saying how happy she was that we came to visit, and we spent the morning with some of the residents.  We didn’t need to do anything and there was nothing that we could do or problem solve, we just sat, ate, and talked with them.  Seeing how happy they were that we were there and just being us, helped me to realize that sometimes patients just need someone to be a person to them and to see them as a person.

This change is valuable for my life, because I believe that the skills I’ve learned can be applied no matter where I end up in life.  Being able to know when to prioritize efficiency versus when I need to take a step back and focus on an individual as a whole, would be important in any job or relationship that I might find myself in.  Additionally, one of my professional goals is to go to pharmacy school and to become a pharmacist.  This better understanding of the importance of developing a patient relationship and knowing building my soft skills will be invaluable in patient interactions.