Health Mentors Final Reflection: Team #140- Kale Burbine My primary focus will be centered around the team

functioning objective of my health mentors experience. Our team interacted with one another very well, with each member contributing to every assignment and meeting with the mentor. Each team member was designated to make ten power-point slides for the chronology presentation and all members completed their portion to the best of their ability. Eileen was usually the one who was in contact with our mentor throughout the term, usually calling in order to arrange meetings. Brittany always came to the meetings prepared with questions to ask, and Andreas always tried to keep our team on topic. I was the driver to our team meetings, and recorded notes for each meeting. We thrived off of each others work ethic and interest in the health mentors program in order to make our meetings as rewarding as possible for both our mentor, and ourselves. What the meetings really taught me regarding the current health professional scene, is that it is critical to treat each individual with respect, and as a person. Our mentor talked extensively of her experiences in the emergency sector of hospitals, where she felt that she was treated as a product rather than a patient. Overall, her experiences with health professionals had been a good one, except for one experience where a worker stole money from her. This leads to the importance of maintaining ethical consideration, and not taking advantage of those perceived as being frail and/or vulnerable. In one of our meetings, our mentor discussed how exercising with a physiotherapist at her assisted-living home had helped her spinal stenosis condition drastically. She mentioned how a few years ago, her condition was causing her increased pain and loss of function. However, upon working alongside the physiotherapist, she noticed that not only had the loss of function been halted, but that she was noticing improvements in regards to decreased pain while performing

her activities of daily life. This was an important discussion for me to engage in as a student in the health profession, as I was able to see the effect that I could have in improving quality of life of an individual. In addition to learning of the effect a physiotherapist had on our mentor, I was also educated on how each additional profession contributed to improving the quality of life of our mentor. She discussed how each profession included within our team had helped her throughout her life; as I learned the value of nurses in the care of people, as well as how a knowledgeable pharmacist can provide optimal medication to meet the needs of the individual while maintaining consideration of how other medications may interact with each other. I didnt know much about the pharmacy profession prior to health mentors, but my communication with Andreas, as well as listening to our mentors interaction with them, taught me important they are to the health professional team. Each member of our group was always interested in listening to our mentors experiences with professionals of their chosen profession of study. This was a valuable asset for my education regarding the contributions of each profession and how they communicate amongst each other. Our mentor thought that the communication amongst health professionals, in regards to her personal experience with them, was positive. She spoke about how they respected each professions importance to the team, and never once heard negative talk directed at another member. This is the way I hope to interact with my inter-professional team, as I feel that collaboration, communication, and respect will serve as the cornerstones for reaching the goal of optimal patient care. Our mentor did not have chronic conditions that caused her or her husband to be debilitated, other than the aforementioned spinal stenosis as well as vision problems. She was in remarkably good spirits and fitness for a woman of her age. Overall, I feel that the health

mentors program is beneficial in teaching blossoming health professionals about the interprofessional team that they will be a part of and the effect that this team can have in improving the lives of each member of society.