Meet Your Patients Where They Are: Miller School of Medicine Student Earns ASA Grant
Sonia Natasha Singh’s passion for patient-centered care led to a prestigious American Society of Anesthesiologists Mentoring Grant.
Fourth-year medical student Sonia Natasha Singh came to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine to make a difference. During her time in Miami, she’s devoted her energy to the Little Haiti Street Fair, worked with women threatened with violence by intimate partners and volunteered for Miami Street Medicine, a non-profit organization that provides medical care for the city’s unhoused population.
“It really teaches you to meet your patients where they are, as they are, and to meet their individual needs,” said Singh, “I’m grateful for these experiences because they allowed me to practice compassionate, patient-centered care from very early on.”
At a fundamental level, Singh said, serving patients starts with communication. Providers have an obligation to make sure patients understand their treatment plans. In an international city, that can be a challenge.
“In Miami, you see so many patients whose primary language is not English,” she said. “A huge role we play is being educators.”
Singh’s passion for patient education has resulted in an American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) Mentoring Grant that strives to improve health literacy among Hispanic patients admitted to the acute pain service at UHealth—University of Miami Health System. Under the auspices of the grant, Singh devised surveys that assess patient confidence in understanding their medications—dosage, side effects and timing. Patients complete the surveys, then receive medication counseling from fourth-year medical students in Spanish. After the counseling session, the patients again complete the surveys.
“What the survey is trying to determine is, where is the misunderstanding happening?” Singh explained. “What part of the information are you lacking to make sure that you can get the medicines you need? I hope to identify gaps in understanding and empower patients to advocate for their own care.”
Singh will integrate the survey and counseling results for presentations at national conferences, including the ASA annual meeting in San Antonio and the American Society of Regional Anesthesia Pain Medicine meeting.
“This grant gave me the opportunity to practice what I’m passionate about—health literacy, mentorship and education,” Singh said.
Mentorship has played a pivotal role in Singh’s development as she prepares applications for anesthesiology residencies.
“I chose anesthesiology because you can utilize a very unique blend of physiology, pharmacology and critical care, and see almost every aspect at work while giving all of your attention to one patient,” she said.
She credits mentors like Selina Patel, M.D., an assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology at the Miller School, for encouraging her to be confident in the operating room.
“Dr. Patel really made me feel like a part of the team and encouraged me to do everything from placing monitors on the patient to presenting my first medically challenging cases at an anesthesia conference,” Singh says. “Mentoring is so important because it helps you feel included, pushes you to grow and prepares you for the challenges ahead.”
Singh also worked closely with the Miller School’s Ralf Gebhard, M.D., a professor of clinical anesthesiology and UHealth’s acute pain medicine and regional anesthesiology program director, and Gabriella Cristina Castellá, M.D., an assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology, who reviewed her survey methodology and supported her grant application.
“Their mentorship was invaluable,” she said. “They helped me with the IRB process and reviewed all of my work before submission.”
Reflecting on the impact of the ASA grant, Singh said, “Grants like this open up avenues for students to do so much work that is needed in the field to address gaps. I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
Tags: anesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, medical students, student research