Public health students learn about health care barriers while working with EMS
On top of a full-time class schedule, some public health students at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine are volunteering their free time to the Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Roanoke County, and other rescue squads.
The students are bridging the gap between rural communities and health care by providing Emergency Medical Services throughout the New River and Roanoke valleys. They are helping rural residents away from more populated areas understand better what health services, such as EMS, are available for them, but they are also learning from those rural residents about obstacles to care.
“When they go to a rural or underserved area, they’re learning from these communities about the real challenges with access to health care,” said Laura Hungerford, department head of Population Health Sciences, also has volunteered for the Floyd County and Blacksburg Volunteer Rescue Squads as an EMT. “With their EMS and public health training, they will continue to bring help to people in need and new solutions for the larger rural health crisis.”
Andre Asarian said social determinants, such as availability of health care, often paint a more complete picture of health for residents in a particular area. “Especially since you form those interpersonal relationships with people who aren’t necessarily students, but active members of the community,” said Asarian, an undergraduate public health student in the accelerated Master of Public Health program who works with Roanoke County Fire & Rescue.
Sydney Sokol, majoring in public health as well as human nutrition, foods, and exercise at Virginia Tech, said her time at the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad is an avenue to public health outside of the classroom setting.
“When you are in the back of the ambulance with a patient in front of you, you get the opportunity to see how concepts from the classroom are applicable to the lives of the community around you,” Sokol said.
“What I really like about public health is doing community education and preventive medicine,” said Miranda Jones, who is working with the Blacksburg and Roanoke County rescue squads. “And with EMS, I think we get the unique experience of seeing patients in their homes, so we can look at that background and give them education, whether it’s about their medical condition or how to be healthier at home.”
Jones also comes from a family of paramedics, which inspired her to join the rescue squad.
Albert Annan, another undergraduate in the accelerated public health master’s program, said working with the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad is as much of a social role as a medical role.
“We don’t just see people who need emergency help all the time,” Annan said. “We see people who have anxiety, panic attacks, depression.”
Hungerford said not only do students learn from their patients, but she as an instructor learns from her students.
“My students are the mentors.” said Hungerford when talking about what it’s like working alongside public health students. “They bring their public health skills to both their patients and leadership positions. Our students are all really busy, but they’re choosing to do this volunteer work on top of that and they’re already making a difference.”
