The Patient Support Corps, a program matching undergraduates and first and second-year Geisel School of Medicine students with patients at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, recently received a $200,000 Arthur Vining Davis Foundations grant to be paid out over three years.
The Patient Support Corps connects patients and students by facilitating a coaching process, which allows students to advise patients about the best way to communicate with their doctors. Participants also take notes and audio recordings of appointments so that patients can pay attention to what their physicians are saying without focusing on memorizing every detail.
Asha Clarke Med’16, who interned with the program last summer and is currently involved in training new participants, said the grant will expand the program to more students, patients and hospital staff.
Susan Berg, interim program director at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center’s Center for Shared Decision Making, said in an email that the funds will also be used to help integrate the program into Geisel’s curriculum, hire a program coordinator and secretary and expand the program to additional medical centers. It will also help fund the program’s general expenses, from consultations to volunteer trainings.
The Patient Support Corps, a program within DHMC’s Center for Shared Decision Making, is free for patients being cared for by participating clinicians, Berg said.
Clarke said the program has assisted over 70 patients to date.
Dartmouth’s Patient Support Corps program began in 2011, after program director and Geisel surgery professor Dale Vidal attended a speech given at a medical conference by a student who had participated in the program at the University of California at San Francisco.
The program recruited its first students in November 2011 and held its first training in January 2012. The first patients it assisted were in the Comprehensive Breast Program at DHMC’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center.
So far, 17 students — eight undergraduates, eight medical students and one student from The Dartmouth Institute — have participated in the program, Berg said. Undergraduates can apply to participate in the program, she said, and added that four new undergraduates are currently being trained alongside 12 Geisel students and several DHMC staff members.
Clarke said DHMC patients benefit from the program’s services and the presence of program participants at doctors’ appointments.
“They’re grateful to have someone with them at their appointment as an unbiased presence,” she said.
Vidal said she would like to see the program’s services expanded to all DHMC patients, especially because she has often observed appointments during which patients do not effectively communicate their needs to a doctor.
Having program participants assist patients write down questions for their doctors and record appointments can strengthen the connection between doctors and patients, she said.
The benefits that students receive from this partnership are equally important, she added. Students may choose to attend medical school out of a sense of empathy, but the medical school education sometimes “beats it out of you,” she said. The program reminds students what is truly important, she said.
Clarke said she thinks it is valuable to work so closely with patients, especially because she missed such interactions during the four years she spent as a behavior specialist before coming to Geisel.
Participant Ethan Canty ’15 said the program allows undergraduates to learn more about the medical profession and how to work closely with patients.
“The program is really helpful for understanding the tip of the iceberg for what patient-centered care was,” Canty said.
Tyler Dillehay ’15, who also participated in the program, said the Patient Support Corps gives pre-medical students an opportunity to hone their skills.
The Patient Support Corps is one of several ways in which first and second-year Geisel students can interact with patients. Manisha Apte ’12 Med’16, who does not work with the Patient Support Corps, said she has interviewed patients and performed physical exams, but she looks forward to more intensive patient learning experiences in her third and fourth years at Geisel.
Apte is a former member of The Dartmouth staff.
