Clinical Thinking
Students Shaped by Experiences at Inner City Clinic Humbled and privileged. These are words commonly used by ACPHS pharmacy students who volunteer at the Koinonia Primary Care clinic located in the heart of inner city Albany. The clinic was founded in 2002 by Dr. Bob Paeglow (known to all as Dr. Bob) to help care for the people of the West Hill and Arbor Hill neighborhoods of the city, where few of the residents can afford medical insurance. Koinonia provides patients with primary medical and mental health services – regardless of their ability to pay. As an extension of his commitment to service, Dr. Bob created a program called Care from the Start to “help teach medical students the joys of caring for the poor and less fortunate.” ACPHS students Bridget Lenaghan, Annemarie “Annie” Nardolillo, and Kenzie Keenan learned of the program and inquired about volunteer opportunities for pharmacy students to which Dr. Bob happily obliged. ACPHS student Annie Nardolillo discusses a patient case with Dr. Bob Paeglow (middle) and a medical student while volunteering at the Koinonia Primary Care clinic in Albany.
Care from the Start is entirely student based and the work of this program is done exclusively at Koinonia. On Wednesday evenings, after the clinic’s normal hours, students from Albany Medical College (AMC) and ACPHS arrive at Koinonia to treat “real world” patients. There are four groups of AMC students and within each group there is one ACPHS student. Annie says, “It is a privilege to be a part of this program. Not only are we helping people in need, but we are building relationships with future physicians and learning how important an interdisciplinary approach is to effective patient care.” “It’s a win-win situation,” says Dr. Bob of the medical student-pharmacy student dynamic. “The more the two professions work with each other, the more they understand the value that each brings to the team. In the
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