Alice is a physician assistant practicing cardiac electrophysiology since graduating from Nova Southeastern University in 2016. However, prior to beginning to PA school, she was a gap-year intern at Grace Medical Home. Alice had just graduated from USF and was in the process of applying to PA school.

“The staff at Grace was patient and diligent to further my learning.”

As Alice points out, Grace taught her how to educate and empower patients. In her professional education and among preceptors after PA school, she notes that providers typically come off as referees who are only there to blow the whistle when patients step out of bounds. At Grace, the providers demonstrated time and again how to lovingly and proactively address preventative care measures—lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise, and smoking cessation. Just as impressively, the providers always took the time to clearly explain signs, tests, diagnoses, and other medical jargon, making sure that the patients understood. Alice learned how to make the patients feel that they were on the same team as the health professionals and were working towards the same goals.

Alice also remembers the way that Grace staff would go out of their way to show her rare pathologies. In several cases, providers took the time to educate Alice through the entire process: from examination to diagnosis, and from referral to interpreting imaging. Seven years later, she still recalls one volunteer physician walking her through findings on a thyroid scan. Alice was able to use that education to predict the next steps of the practitioners and understand all their medical decision making.

“I feel Grace showed me how to see the patient as a whole.”

Grace Medical Home recognizes that relief from medical conditions does not just require medication. It demands social support (rides to appointments and access to healthy foods), emotional support (friendly staff who treats you like family), financial support (help with job searching and getting legal documentation), mental support (access to counseling), and spiritual support (prayer and offering hope for their future).

Now that Alice has been in practice for several years, she realizes that many providers simply do not think of all those barriers to well-being.