As a second year pre-medical student at Northeastern University, my desire to become a healthcare professional flourishes every day. An advantage of being a student who is just beginning to learn about the healthcare industry is that my ideas and values are easily molded by those who surround me. By attending the Society for Participatory Medicine (SPM) conference in Boston, MA, I surrounded myself with the inspiring stories of past patients, passionate patient advocates, and exceptional health care professionals.
The experience I had at this conference boosted my excitement for entering the healthcare field and has strengthened my ethical values when it comes to patient care. My excitement from the conference stems from the patient-focused ideals expressed by every member of the conference. Seeing the health care professional I hope to be some day embodied in front of me by dozens of role models was truly amazing and provided me with many examples to follow.
I would recommend the SPM conference and the ideals discussed during the conference to any student interested in the healthcare field. By exposing students to opportunities where professionals discuss ways to improve healthcare, students can learn the best ways to provide effective care. From listening to influential people speak about patient-centered care first hand, students will be able to implement the ways they learned to improve the health care system on a large scale.
I will definitely apply what I learned from this conference to the ways I view health care and it has initiated thinking about the ways I can improve the quality of care that patients receive when I am a healthcare professional. The opportunity to attend the SPM conference was provided to me through the collaboration of my professor Jay Spitulnik and the co-organizers of the conference Joseph Ternullo and Danny Sands.
About the Author: Jordan Rhyner is a second year, pre-med, undergraduate student at Northeastern University.
