Diversity Fellow Project, Grace Brannon
Patient-Centered Communication for a People-First Mindset: Adapting Trainings for Healthcare Contexts
Project Narrative
1. Please describe your activities during your Fellowship experience. Describe your final capstone project(s).
My activities spanned three projects. First, I worked with faculty to develop an Institutional Review Board (IRB) application for a project examining how University Centers of Excellence on Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD) leaders communicate about disabilities within their organization. Second, I adapted an existing ability awareness training (for university faculty and staff) to be specific for the medical and health professional community. It’s important for medical professionals to know how to communicate with individuals with disabilities and their families, particularly as the triad of patients, families, and healthcare practitioners are instrumental in decision-making and treatment implementation for the individuals. This is my final capstone project, and will be presented at the 2017 AUCD conference. Third, I worked on another research team, contacting disability resources in response to the Hurricane Harvey disaster in order to prepare a research directory for individuals with disabilities who were affected by Hurricane Harvey.
2. Who did your project inform, help, influence or impact? (UCEDD, individual, community, state) How?
Project 1 primarily focused on informing, helping, influencing, and impacting UCEDD, while Project 3 was primarily focused on the community and individuals within. My capstone project, Project 2, primarily focused on the community. Its primary goal was to inform individuals of the medical community how to communicate with people of varying abilities. Existing models were adapted to create an interactive training program for these medical professionals (and future professionals).
3. Why did you choose to work on that project(s)?
Projects 1 and 3, I was assigned to work on as a part of my Fellowship. I was most interested in Project 2 as it directly relates to my experience in health communication. Often, people in the medical professions are trained based on the process of diagnosis and treatment. My research primarily focuses on the role of communication in interpersonal actions, so I felt that it was important to understand and develop trainings specific to these professionals who may not obtain this type of training elsewhere. Further, much of the existing tools focus on examining individuals with disabilities within a medical model, rather than a social model which looks at the individuals as people, rather than illnesses to be treated.
4. What did you gain from being a Diversity Fellow?
First, I was able to establish relationships with others who are passionate about people who have disabilities. I also participated in a couple different projects, which allowed me to extend and apply my personal research in areas I hadn’t thought of. I enjoyed working with a variety of people from different backgrounds, particularly as it was helpful in both professional and personal networking, as well as expanding my skillsets in different types of applied and practical research.
It has brought a new focus on mindfulness of the populations I am interested in. I also appreciated learning more about the world in which we live, but from a different research focus. I will continue to examine how individuals with disabilities communicate with family members and healthcare practitioners, so I found the experience quite impactful.
6. What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
Currently, my short-term goal is defending my dissertation in the next year and a half. I plan on applying for tenure track positions in the Dallas/Fort Worth area after graduation. In five years from now, I hope to be successfully going through my mid-tenure review. I would one day love to work with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization, but it will likely take longer than five years to make those goals into realities.
7. What recommendations do you have for other Fellows?
Track your hours and get to know the other Fellows in your organization! I was lucky to have two great individuals to work with on a couple of the projects. Definitely reach out to them and try to establish open lines of communication with them and your faculty mentors. It was also helpful that the faculty members who I worked with appreciated the background of research and methods that I had, and were very open to my input and what I had to add – so speak up, your thoughts are valuable!