Student PA one of 18 in nation selected as Student Health Policy Fellow
Jessica Baker visits Tennessee’s Congressional delegation as part of advocacy training fellowship.
Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078 |
Students in the Physician Assistant Education Association’s Student Health Policy Fellowship, including Lipscomb's Jessica Baker, visited Congress in the U.S Capitol.
Jessica West Baker, a student physician assistant from Shawnee, Kansas, was selected for the Physician Assistant Education Association’s Student Health Policy Fellowship.
As the only fellow from Tennessee, Baker traveled to Washington D.C. in September for a three-day intensive workshop designed to bolster students’ advocacy and leadership skills and empower them to enact meaningful change in their local communities.
The workshop kicked off with a full day of lectures and interactive sessions with advocacy staff from the American Academy of Physician Assistants and PAEA focusing on policy issues related to PA education and practice, state-level advocacy and the power of grassroots advocates, according to the PAEA website.
This year’s workshop included information on PA leadership paths, effective engagement with congressional staff and a presentation on the role of PAs in promoting access to care for those suffering from opioid use disorder and the importance of completing the training necessary to prescribe buprenorphine to treat those suffering from the condition, Tyler Smith of the PAEA reported on the site.
Jessica West Baker learned advocacy and leadership skills in Washington D.C.
In preparation for the culminating experience of the fellowship, Capitol Hill visits with each student’s elected representatives, the fellows divided up into small teams to practice their approach to congressional meetings. Using these skills, the fellows met with the offices of 13 Senate Democrats, 10 Senate Republicans, six House Democrats, and six House Republicans.
“I had a wonderful experience at the PAEA 2019 Student Health Policy and Advocacy Fellowship,” said Baker. “On our last day, I went to the Hill and met with staffers of (Tennessee’s) Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Jim Cooper and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which Sen. Lamar Alexander is the chairman.
“In our meetings, I talked to the staffers about the PA profession, the PA's role in Tennessee and bills that pertained to the PA profession,” she said. “All of the staff I spoke to were supportive of the PA role and very attentive to me as I told them about myself and my classmates’ experiences with our student loan debt burden and the PA clinical site shortage.”
The workshop included a full day of lectures and sessions with staff from the American Academy of Physician Assistants.
The second day of the fellowship explored how students can effectively advocate for policy change in their local communities during a session led by 2018 Student Health Policy Fellow Marissa Weeks, who successfully coordinated a program visit by her local senator late last year.
As the final component of the fellowship, over the course of the next year, each of the 18 fellows are required to complete a community-based advocacy project using what they learned while in DC.
“Now that I have been equipped from my time in D.C., I will be creating a project by September that will showcase advocacy or policy in the PA profession in the state of Tennessee,” Baker said.