Kaitlyn Greiner

Public Health Determinants Project

3. Preprofessional Concentration

An individual who exemplified professionalism during my time at MUSC was my

internship preceptor, Stefanie. She is a physician assistant at MUSC in the GI surgery

department. She usually works for two physicians alongside a team of healthcare

professionals in the clinic during the week. Stefanie demonstrated professionalism by

being a patient advocate. Throughout the internship, she taught me that I needed to find a

strong voice in order to be a patient advocate when I enter the healthcare field.

Stefanie knew that her main job and responsibility was to advocate for her

patients. She cares about her patients more than anything else in her career. She showed

that she would stand up for any process in the clinic to make the patient’s lives easier if

necessary. For example, she has a strong voice that she used with the nurses to get the

patients out of the waiting room more efficiently. Stefanie would tell the nurses what

needed to happen and was not afraid to stand up for the patients when dealing with her

co-workers. If a problem occurred, Stefanie would firmly address it with whoever was

responsible in order to get the job done and make her patients’ appointments optimal. She

was always on top of keeping the appointment process running as efficiently as possible.

Stefanie also made sure that the nurses obtained any labs that were needed. Another

situation during which Stefanie demonstrated her professional voice was when she

needed to get a brochure for a patient but several of the rooms were not stocked with

them. She immediately addressed this with the nurse manager and got what she needed

for her patient. When on the phone, she tries to obtain the information that she needs in

the most efficient and resourceful manner possible. She always appreciates efficiency in

others and makes this known. Residents were frequently in the clinic helping out as well.

Stefanie would steadfastly let them know if they had made a mistake in the clinic at the

cost of patient satisfaction or efficiency. Her respect for the patients came before

anything else. She strives to be a patient advocate daily because she feels that this is her

main responsibility.

From this internship, I learned that I need to develop my own voice to stand up

for my patients if necessary. Stefanie felt that criticism was very good for students and

always told me that my main problem will be developing this voice even if this means

standing up to my own team. At the beginning, she was concerned about my soft-spoken

voice and quiet demeanor. She told me that this was an area that I need to work on if I’m

going to be successful in healthcare. Stefanie taught me that being nice and polite can

come across as weak and incompetent during first impressions. After getting to know me,

Stefanie realized that my soft-spoken demeanor was not incompetence, but a quiet

confidence. She said that this is actually a great quality to have, but can be difficult with

first impressions. Stefanie advised me to explain this quality during my interviews in the

future so that my interviewers do not get the impression that I am nervous or timid. When

it is necessary to advocate for a patient, a strong voice will get this done most efficiently.

By working on the flaw of my soft-spoken voice, I can improve my professionalism.

Patients and other healthcare professionals will have more confidence in me if I develop

this voice and use it. I can also improve my professionalism by putting my patients first

and deeply caring about them. When healthcare professionals put patients first, they

advocate for them in every way possible. This means making their health and satisfaction

your priority. I learned a great deal about professionalism from Stefanie during this

internship. In the future, I hope that I will have the opportunity to serve as a patient

advocate in my healthcare career.

The one piece of homework that Stefanie gave me on the last day of my

internship was to find a strong voice inside of me that can command when necessary.

This voice will demonstrate that I am a resilient, trustworthy professional to my patients

and co-workers. The voice will make me a better patient advocate and will give me the

ability to work for them. My preceptor was never afraid to use this voice and the clinic

always ran more efficiently when she did use it. I was able to observe and learn from this

professional voice throughout my internship. This is a voice that I will use in my

professional career in order to be a patient advocate.