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Medical and pharmacy students completed another year of volunteering at the popular summertime health checkup with community members who walk the Detroit Riverwalk every Tuesday morning.
The Detroit Riverfront Walkers are Detroit-area men and women who walk along the riverfront to embrace a healthy lifestyle by promoting fun exercise, health screenings and wellness education. Weather permitting, every Tuesday, WSU students offer blood pressure screenings and educational talks about nutrition and common medical issues.
The community service program was started by School of Medicine Associate Professor Emeritus and Director of Community Engagement Jennifer Mendez, PhD, and was first offered to medical students in June 2014. The sessions are offered in partnership with the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.
The School of Medicine student volunteer efforts were organized by second-year medical students Chayton Fivecoat and Denise Bilbao, American Medical Association WSU Chapter Joint Community Service Chairs. The duo alternates working with faculty, training volunteers on how to interact with patients, take histories and take blood pressure.
Students learned to develop rapport with the patient, obtain and document medical histories and current medications, record blood pressures, and connect patients to resources and information to better manage their health through diet and exercise.
“The key to this year’s success is our team’s commitment to properly train our volunteers at the beginning of each session,” said Bilbao. “In addition to going beyond the technical aspects of their day’s work, we focused on making their interactions with patients more human. Faculty members drove home the importance of appreciating our patients, seeing them as human beings and trying to learn from each interaction rather than just a diagnostic suite. In my training class, volunteers interacted with each patient. I emphasize that they took the time to connect with the patients in the morning, asking how their legs were doing and showing up with simple symptoms. I think this had a big impact on how our patients viewed the program because they were greeted not only by robotic volunteers, but faces eager to learn and talk with them.
Seeing patients in a clinic can be a very personal experience, sometimes compromising the importance of understanding the individual’s lifestyle, values ​​and personality, Bilbao added. “The Riverfront Walkers program is a very unique experience, as patients come to you in the middle of a fun event, often with their friends or family, making small talk, allowing you to see them in their everyday lives. Participating in the program is a wonderful opportunity for personal and professional growth.” This emphasizes the importance of considering the patient’s non-medical aspects of life, and is also a great opportunity to develop your technical and communication clinical skills.
Students will receive service learning credit for participation. Between June and late August this year, students and faculty recorded 693 blood pressure screenings, a significant increase from a year ago. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the entire program has been postponed until 2020. Although it will return in 2021, that summer saw fewer participants than previous years.
“This summer it was great to see so many of the riverwalkers from past years come out and participate in the screening program,” said Nilima Tati, MD, associate professor of internal medicine and chief of primary care and public health. It was great to see them engaging with walkers as part of the pressure testing programme.We have had record numbers this year since the outbreak, which is a prime example of building trust in the community.
Volunteers include first- and second-year medical students, internal medicine and med-peds residents, as well as students from the WSU Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
Lin Pham, A A Doctor of Pharmacy candidate for the Class of 2024, he worked with Bilbao and Fivecoat to lead pharmacy student volunteers and coordinate care.
“Riverfront Walkers enjoy being able to help students practice their clinical skills and learn more about their health from the students. Associate Director of Service Learning Unit 1 and Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Rima Charara, Pharm.D. and other faculty volunteers helped the program run smoothly and successfully this year. Dr. Charara especially makes each session a fun and exciting learning experience that gives students more hands-on opportunities to learn outside of the classroom, Pham said. “Each week, I always leave feeling so grateful and thankful for the opportunity to give back to the local Detroit community. After this experience, I can confidently say that I am very comfortable with taking blood pressure and have strengthened my patient counseling skills. I also enjoy collaborating with the medical students and working with them to further expand our clinical skills and give back to the community.
Andrew Markowitz, MD, ’85 FACOG, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, is one of the WSU faculty who volunteer to supervise and lead students in the weekly community outreach event.
“I’m honored to be able to teach the next generation of medical students,” said Dr. Markowitz, course director of the School of Medicine’s Population, Patient, Physician and Professional School. Students begin to understand and practice the importance of empathic communication to enhance the joy and trust of clinical interactions.The program reinforces community involvement and is emblematic of the mission of Wayne State University School of Medicine.
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