The AHEC Road to Medicine: Rising M1 Victor Akinditan

As an undergraduate at the University of Akron, Victor Akinditan knew that he was interested in pursuing the study of medicine. Now, with his first year in the College of Medicine just a couple of months away, Akinditan reflects on the ways in which the AHEC Scholars Program helped prepare him.

The AHEC Scholars Program is an opportunity offered to undergraduate students in the last two years of their degree program at The University of Akron [and universities across the country]. The students chosen for this free, two-year program were majoring in different health professions such as pre-physical therapy, nutrition and dietetics, pre-physician assistant, pre-med and nursing. As an interprofessional group, we were exposed to 40 hours of didactic learning on issues such as public health, social determinants of health, and interprofessional development — and another 40 hours of community engagement — each semester. During those community engagement hours, we visited the Akron Metropolitan House Authority (AMHA) low-income housing facilities for older adults and adults with disabilities and spoke to the residents about different health-related topics every month. Through my time in this program, I have developed a clearer vision of what it means to be a doctor and I am more aware of my responsibilities as a health professional in the community.

During our community engagement hours, we would form an interprofessional team that was supervised by our Center Director, Greta A. Lax.  Each month, we visited two AMHA apartment buildings in Akron. During our visits, we would present health topics such as cardiovascular health and talk about various factors that affect and improve cardiovascular health. I was part of the exercise science team and I worked with exercise science majors on my team to present the topics.

Our Center Director emphasized that the information being discussed must be presented in a simple and digestible format. Furthermore, the residents were very willing to ask questions and to open up about their past and current health conditions, which made our discussions a great learning experience both for us students and for the residents. Through this experience, I grew to value the necessity of effective communication between health professionals and their patients. I realized that good communication would foster a relationship that is built on trust, because patients see that their physician wants them to fully understand their medical condition.

Another way we were able to foster relationships with the residents was to help them plan their monthly goals. During our monthly visits, each student would work individually with a resident to make monthly goals that they wanted to accomplish. The point of this exercise was for the students and residents to get to know each other more, but it was also an opportunity for us students to practice motivational interviewing, which is a counseling approach that emphasizes the patients as the primary force of change in their lives. The idea is for health professionals to support the patients’ decisions, helping them to find their own solutions rather than trying to force them to improve their habits and lifestyle.

After our visits, we would recap our interactions with the senior residents during a monthly goal-planning session. We assessed where we went wrong and what we did right in order to improve on our motivational interviewing skills and to foster a better relationship with the residents and the patients we will encounter in the future.

Finally, The AHEC Scholars Program has provided me with the opportunity to learn about social determinants of health, health policy, and advocacy, and this has changed my outlook on the responsibilities of a physician.  During our didactic hours we discussed the impact of various factors such as socioeconomic status, ethnic background, neighborhood, educational level, etc. , can affect a person’s health choices and outcomes — and how an awareness of these factors will help me as a physician. This sometimes means that the solution to a patient’s issues, (for example, the need to avoid an unhealthy diet), might mean that their neighborhood needs better food options.

Due to this knowledge, I truly understand that the health status of a person is also affected by other individual and societal factors. And based on this understanding, I have been further encouraged to be a health advocate for my patients when I discover certain federal, local and health policies that directly or indirectly harm my patients. This experience has also encouraged me to collaborate with public health officials, policy advocates and community organizers to help improve the health of the community that I serve.

Overall, the AHEC Scholars program expanded my view on the responsibilities of a health professional in the community. It has also helped me develop the communication and counseling skills that will help me as a physician in the future. And through this experience, I have learned to appreciate the value of the interprofessional team in the hospital and input that every health professional brings to the table. I truly enjoyed my experience in this program, and I cherish the relationships that I have developed with the residents and with my fellow colleagues.