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IUI ECHO Center
IUI ECHO Center
Purpose
Purpose
Position Title: ECHO Intern
My engaged learning experience was at the ECHO Center in the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health.
We conduct and join various Zoom meetings, weekly, discussing many topics from LGBTQ+ Health, Trans Health, and Cancer Prevention & Survivorship to name a few of their sessions.
My current tasks include, but are not limited to, joining discussion during the ECHO sessions, taking attendance from each assigned session, conducting case outreach for new or past providers that have shared in previous ECHO sessions, and attending team meetings to discuss plans for ECHO sessions moving forward.
I chose this experience because I felt like being exposed to real multidisciplinary teams would be a good real-life experience considering I will have to do the same as an aspiring Physician's Assistant.
Experiencing collaborative care seems important not only to understand how discussions are conducted but also getting answers to help the patients at hand have a better quality of life in the end.
What is ECHO and What does it stand for?
What is ECHO and What does it stand for?
ECHO stands for: Extension for Community Health Outcomes, multiple programs are implemented with the intent to educate and bring awareness about various, up to date, topics and disseminate emerging research and best practices in patient care.
Participants involved include, but are not limited to, healthcare professionals, multidisciplinary teams, clinical and non-clinical workers and students at various levels.
The providers ask opinions from other multidisciplinary teams online during the session and their live opinions are shared with the initial health professional.
I would like to note that the providers can be from all around the country, they are not just exclusive to taking cases from Indiana!
Prior Experience
Prior Experience
The connections between my life experiences and my engaged learning experience include my overall attention to detail, timeliness, prioritization, and my ability to communicate and advocate for certain things.
When doing tasks at work, I must be accurate to fully comply with the flow of my work environment.
For example, when compiling a case for an ECHO session it is not only important for the presenter to have the right information to refer to and discuss but for the various providers, also attending the session, to include their opinions on the patient's case.
So, in conclusion, this information being compiled cannot be flawed and I take full responsibility for any mistakes being made, this also reflects my learning and utilization of the help being offered to me to avoid such mistakes.
NOTE: In the end, the original participant who submitted the case is trying to reach other multidisciplinary teams to get advice and answers to clarifying questions on how to provide the best care for the patient/client.
Prior Experience
Prior Experience
These skills are also being reflected in my coursework. For example, I am utilizing feedback from my professors more and analyzing any mistakes I have made on assignments all while learning from those mistakes. Also, timeliness is a factor because everything has a due date at this specific time in my life.
This shows my growth by conforming to the due dates, prioritizing, and being stricter on myself to complete all my assignments in a timely manner.
HIV ECHO Debrief
Discussing curriculum
Successes and Challenges after the session
Implementations for the future
Community Connections
Community Connections
My experience provides me with opportunities to engage with and learn from different communities from a virtual standpoint.
Since we conduct most of our meetings via zoom, I attend and experience conversations among clinicians and other allied health professionals.
These interactions have influenced my behavior by continuing to strive to become a Physician’s Assistant.
Seeing the clinicians ask patient centered questions to other professionals, during the call, seems rewarding especially if you find an answer from the other clinicians to help treat your patient.
Having these “behind the scenes” conversations make the profession more interesting to me as compared to only having one-on-one patient experience, I will face one day.
INCARE'S is the Indiana Communities Advancing Recovery Efforts
This program focuses on bringing local communities, that have higher substance abuse rates and opioid-related overdoses, together to discuss solutions to support health promotion and improve outcomes among the community.
This meeting discussed the curriculum for the upcoming sessions this spring.
Expectations for the team were expressed, and any questions pertaining to the future sessions were asked.
Skills Obtained
Skills Obtained
This engaged learning experience is not only helping me become more disciplined, but I am also learning more technical skills that may be applicable to my future occupation. Along with many other transferable skills, interpersonal and technical.
Having better communication skills, while interpersonal, is the most important.
As a future Physician's Assistant, I will not only improve my relatability to patients but, make sure my patients comfortability with me is satisfactory.
Also, this will help form the patient and provider relationship.
These relationships can then grow, and I can gain the trust of my patients to properly care for and understand my patients' concerns.
ECHO CENTER LOGO
ECHO CENTER LOGO
"All Teach, All Learn" Model
This is an approach implemented throughout the sessions, it's the idea that everyone from all walks of life, education levels, and experience can teach everyone in the session equally and still learn from each other as well.
Skills Obtained
Skills Obtained
One new skill that my engaged learning experience has taught me would be the functions of conducting zoom meetings and reviewing recordings.
Before my internship, I have never set up a zoom meeting in my life. I was tasked with reviewing past meetings via zoom, so this initially exposed me to the application/website.
While working, I explored the components of zoom and tinkered with the settings just to mimic how a zoom meeting may be set up.
Little did I know, viewing these settings, asking my supervisor questions, and being in multiple meetings prepared me to conduct a meeting on my own!
So, I put my newfound skills to the test and conducted a zoom meeting successfully. This technical skill was used recently and represented in my group assignment in one of my courses.
Live Zoom Meeting
Live Zoom Meeting
This is a case being presented for the IN CAREs ECHO session
Alex Buchanan, the program's management specialist, is pictured here.
At the ECHO center, all sessions are conducted via zoom, so this is the norm in my workplace, to be fully exposed to the components of each meeting, in depth, this was most important for me to learn.
Impact
Impact
As I progressed throughout the year at ECHO, I was tasked to work with the IN CAREs program. This impact was a indication that my efforts as an intern were not going unnoticed. I was offered to help alongside this program because of my hard work thus far. This made me view the ECHO Center as a place of employment that will help you advance and guide you along the way.
While assisting with IN CAREs, my duties were as followed: edit-recorded content, quality check recordings, notate important information and upload to our Canvas page, and monitor discussion board communication and report any concerns to the program management specialist.
These efforts were crucial for the program because the participants often relay information from the notes that were saved from the session. The participants also refer to the recorded videos if absent.
Impact
Impact
I need an eye for detail with this information because I would be at fault if a mistake in the notes causes someone to receive misinformation or be led astray.
Overall, I felt as if my duties are relevant and important to the program management specialist as well as the attendees here at ECHO.
Career Connections
Career Connections
Based on this experience I intend to continue homing in on my networking skills and communication in order to obtain a position, over the summer, working in a hospital setting.
I need to be exposed to this setting more because I wish to seek my future career, as a Physician Assistant, and I am extremely confident for this position to be an excellent starting point.
With my current scope and education level it is going to be a little difficult.
But I am going to apply for some of the positions starting out. Such as dietary assistance or assisting with transport, something along those lines. I figure I need to get experience somehow and this may bring me closer to my goals then I could imagine.
This connects with my career goals by getting firsthand experience in the hospital setting, learning new skills, and understanding how this setting work. Learning the flow of a hospital and hopefully being exposed to tedious moments will prepare me for the future as I already plan to experience this.
This connects with my career goals by getting firsthand experience in the hospital setting, learning new skills, and understanding how this setting work. Learning the flow of a hospital and hopefully being exposed to tedious moments will prepare me for the future as I already plan to experience this.
Summary
Summary
In summary,
My overall experience was spectacular. I was exposed to many networking opportunities along with hands on tasks I would conduct during my internship. Tasks such as data-entry, case outreach, video editing and various note-taking moments.
My biggest takeaway from the ECHO Center would be that collaborative care is an important aspect of the healthcare system. The way I have seen, firsthand, how the meetings are conducted and the discussions build excites me for the near future. This feeling is resonated and I imagine speaking with my multidisciplinary team about a future patient and how to help them overall. It is going to stick with me, for a long time, that this form of teamwork can really make a difference in an individual's life and the team moving forward.
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