Getting the chance to go to SFGH, see their facility and work with the staff while being exposed to more time with patients was such a great experience. It was excellent practice in understanding the best way to approach a patient, their diagnoses and how to ask open ended questions so they don’t feel attacked or judged. These diagnoses (and many more) will be faced while being a practicing physical therapist and these skills, which seem small, will help me enormously in becoming a better PT in the future. I had known the physiology behind what diabetes, hypertension and AIDS was from a classroom standpoint, but this program opened my eyes as to how to bring my knowledge into a patient’s room and how to explain it in layman’s terms (which was much more difficult than I thought it was going to be!).
The collaboration with other health care professional students was huge one for me. I worked with a second-year pharmacy student the second time I volunteered at SFGH and it was wonderful working with her and getting a peek at what their role is in the health care professional team; having her be able to talk about medications to patients and hearing about where she works now (an AIDS focused pharmacy in the Castro where she translates for Mandarin patients) was really eye opening for me. I think I had a skewed opinion of pharmacists before this elective and it made me have a lot of respect for what they do.
This elective made me realize how essential it is that health care professionals work with each other and understand the critical role the other plays in the health of the patient. Having a mutual understanding and respect for one another’s career in the bettering of patients’ needs to be more of a stressed subject otherwise we aren’t working together and using our resources efficiently but butting heads while trying to get the best for each patient. I think this elective does a great job at exposing us to other professions and I think everyone should do this elective at some point in their years at UCSF.