OU students work together for patients
Staff Writer mwingerter@oklahoman.com
The uninsured patients at Good Shepherd clinic tend to come in with a host of problems — chronic medical conditions, dental decay, mental health needs and no money or transportation to get to the scattered professionals that could help.
They’re the patients that doctors typically struggle to help, and that makes them perfect for a group of University of Oklahoma students going into health careers.
Each year, about 75 students studying to be nurses, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, social workers and rehabilitation therapists at OU participate in the Empowering Patients through Interprofessional Collaboration program. As part of the program, they work as a team to treat patients at Good Shepherd on four nights, with a doctor or physician assistant monitoring their work.
One of the teams set up in the clinic’s break room to go over their patients’ charts and decide who needed to go first on their final clinic session Thursday night. Usually, one of the nursing students starts, and then reports back on the patient’s main concerns, pharmacy student Anthy Tran said.
Rachel Hollen, a registered nurse working on her master’s degree, said the experience has given her a better understanding of what the other professions can offer. For example, Tran has been able to help find cheaper options when a patient can’t afford a drug, she said.
“We can take better care of the patient,” she said.
Roberto Hernandez, one of their patients on Thursday, had relatively simple needs, but he said he liked meeting with a group of providers who were friendly and helpful.
“This is a really good service for the community,” he said.
Dr. Dale Bratzler, a professor of medicine and chief quality officer at OU Physicians, said the goal is to get students thinking about how to meet the full scope of a patient’s needs. Doctors need to recognize which of their patients’ needs they aren’t trained to address, he said, and to know who can help.
Cyndy Robinson, an occupational therapist and assistant professor in the College of Allied Health, said working as a team encourages the students to think of the patient as the decisionmaker, and themselves as providers offering services that can meet a portion of the patient’s needs.
“It’s just incredibly powerful to say, ‘I’m here, and here’s what I bring,’” she said.
Some health care settings are moving toward collaboration faster than others. Dr. John Dmytryk, associate dean for academic affairs at the dental school, said most dentists work in solo practices, so they don’t get to see how their work fits into a patient’s overall health. On the other hand, hospitals and doctors’ offices are increasingly looking to social workers for help with their patients’ mental health and material needs, said Terrie Fritz, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the Center for Social Work in Healthcare at OU.
The system is changing because of the emphasis on paying for patient outcomes, Fritz said, but students also will be able to drive change when they go into practice.
Kodie Friend, a nursing student, said she hopes the interdisciplinary model catches on.
“I think if hospitals had more of this, patient outcomes would be a lot better,” she said.