7 minute read
Students as advocates
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FAITH NINIVAGGI
Preparing for careers in health care provides these UMass Chan students with opportunities to speak up, set an example and drive change
By Colleen Locke
Public service has been a cornerstone of UMass Chan Medical School’s mission since its founding and students play a leading role in serving our diverse communities.
T.H. Chan School of Medicine students have helped physicians staff the Worcester Free Care Collaborative since the mid-1990s.
Meredith Walsh, MSN’13, MPH, RN, co-founded the Worcester Refugee Assistance Project in 2010 while a nursing student at UMass Chan. And when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, a UMass Chan team created ScienceLIVE with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows teaching middle school students hands-on activities remotely.
Four student advocates involved in these and other projects are highlighted below.
Jordan Dudley
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FAITH NINIVAGGI
Jordan Dudley
Third-year medical student, T.H. Chan School of Medicine
Jordan Dudley and fellow third-year medical student Kassandra Jean-Marie created Advocacy Allies in their first year of medical school. Dudley and Jean-Marie accompanied patients of color to medical appointments, helped them keep track of their medications and made sure they felt heard by their medical providers. Dudley met some of the patient participants when she and her fellow med student Anna Nesgos volunteered with Mentors for Young Mothers. Advocacy Allies held its first seminar this spring, connecting medical students with community resources so that they can be advocates while also being medical care providers for Black or Indigenous people of color.
“When people think of medical advocacy, they often think of policymaking and campaigning for things, and it doesn't have to be that,” Dudley said. “It's a little bit more approachable to think of yourself as an advocate if you’re working one-on-one with the patient. You can ask yourself, ‘What does that person need and how can I help them achieve it?’”
Dudley, who has a bachelor’s degree in cell and molecular biology, worked as a medical assistant and scribe at South County Dermatology in Narragansett, Rhode Island, where she advocated for patients during calls to insurance companies and by tracking down product samples. These experiences have sparked her desire to continue to be an advocate as a physician.
“I’m 25 and I’ve never had a Black doctor,” Dudley said. “And as a Black woman, I would like to be that for somebody one day, especially with the state of maternal mortality for Black women in the United States. It’s three times that of white women and all the research shows that you do better when your doctor looks like you and can relate to you. So I’m hoping that just by me existing in the space, I can help reduce that disparity for people.”
Jordan Dudley
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FAITH NINIVAGGI
Joseph Magrino, MS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FAITH NINIVAGGI
Joseph Magrino, MS
PhD candidate, Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
Working alongside Brian Kelch, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology, Joseph Magrino, MS, studies proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), a central factor in DNA replication and repair. More specifically, Magrino studies it in the context of a rare neurodegenerative disorder, PCNA-associated DNA repair disorder, which causes premature aging, difficulty walking and cognitive impairment.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Magrino connected with Mary Pickering, PhD’06, director of public engagement with science for the RNA Therapeutics Institute, who at the time was working in a lab on the same floor as Magrino. Dr. Pickering asked Magrino to volunteer for ScienceLIVE, the program she co-founded to bring hands-on experiments to Worcester-area students who were attending school virtually. Magrino, who taught undergraduates at the University of New Haven while earning his master’s degree in cell and molecular biology, started out as a chat moderator.
”Kids are naturally curious, right? They want to know, ‘Is Jurassic Park coming back? Are we cloning humans?’” Magrino said.
Magrino was the first ScienceLIVE graduate student to do a virtual presentation in Worcester Public Schools in 2021 and the first to do inperson experiments with Pickering, including extracting DNA from bananas. Magrino has dyslexia, and because he struggled until a high school English teacher encouraged his writing, it was important for him to be an example and support for all types of learners.
“I think what most people need is one time when someone says, ‘Hey, you can do this.’”
Saisha Cintron, RN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FAITH NINIVAGGI
Saisha Cintron, RN
PhD student, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing
Saisha Cintron’s dissertation is focused on the positive experiences that help emerging adults overcome adverse childhood experiences such as physical, psychological and sexual abuse; addiction; abandonment; and economic hardship. The PhD student knows firsthand the importance of a support system. With the help of her family, she overcame neighborhood poverty, violence and abuse.
“That’s why I wanted to focus on this research,” Cintron said. “It’s all qualitative research, and I think it’s going to be really empowering for the participants.”
A former youth pastor, Cintron mentors students in the community of Worcester, congregates at Jubilee Worcester, works as a float nurse at UMass Memorial HealthAllianceClinton Hospital in Leominster and UMass Memorial Medical Center, and is on the clinical faculty at Worcester State University.
“I’m a big believer that you need to give voice to the voiceless. But it’s not your voice being implemented on them. It’s their voice, and you’re just guiding them so their voice can be louder. And I think that’s where my research is headed right now,” Cintron said.
Saisha Cintron, RN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FAITH NINIVAGGI
Heidi (Boland) Holiver, MS’22, RN
PHOTOGRAPHY BY FAITH NINIVAGGI
Heidi (Boland) Holiver, MS’22, RN
DNP student in the Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Track, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing
The colleges in the Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts have an agreement that if a student has a need for an emergency psychiatric evaluation, the evaluation is performed by UMass Memorial Medical Center’s Emergency Mental Health Services (EMHS). For their scholarly project, Heidi (Boland) Holiver, MS’22, RN, and Paige Laperle, MS’22, RN, interviewed clinicians at EMHS and the consortium colleges and completed chart reviews of students who presented to EMHS for an emergency health evaluation between August 2019 and June 2020. Holiver and Laperle paid particular attention to discharge instructions and follow-up communication.
“This time period in people’s lives, it’s such a vulnerable time. I think they need advocates. Absolutely,” Holiver said. “You see it on the news, students are struggling, but when you don’t have the specific data on hand, it’s hard to address the needs.”
A registered nurse at McLean Hospital, Holiver has a bachelor’s from the College of the Holy Cross. Laperle has a bachelor’s in athletic training from Springfield College. They hope to publish their research findings.
