Efficacy of Patient-Student-Partnership in Achieving Health Goals
Abstract
The Patient-Student-Partnership program (PSP) at ETSU presents a collaborative approach between professional health science students and community members (e.g. “patients”) to help empower patients’ health while facilitating learning for students. This year, the program includes MD and RD students. We investigate the effectiveness of PSP in helping patients achieve health goals, what the most common goals were, and barriers and enablers to achieving those goals among patients. We further examine the program’s impact on patients’ perceived ability to make and maintain goals. Students have monthly educational meetings with their assigned patient, each visit emphasizing a particular educational goal or skillset. One program objective was for students to guide patients in creating self-directed health goals, called SMART Goals, which are carefully crafted to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Time-sensitive. Patients completed a questionnaire that includes questions from the validated Patient Activation Measure (PAM) tool at the beginning and end of the program. This survey data includes information on how goals were approached, barriers and enablers to reaching various goals, and opinions on the patients’ success in meeting or continuing to work on goals. In the 2025-2026 academic year, 20 patients and 34 students participated. We expect that this year’s PSP cohort will have an overall positive effect on helping patients reach their SMART Goals. However, considering unforeseen limiting health issues that many elderly people experience, we predict that exercise-related goals will be the least likely to be achieved. In addition to achieving their SMART goals, we expect that patients will report higher self-efficacy in terms of their health at the end of the program compared to the beginning, showing PSP to be a great way for students to gain experience and give back by serving an aging population before even finishing their training.
Start Time
15-4-2026 2:30 PM
End Time
15-4-2026 3:30 PM
Room Number
304
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Presentation Subtype
Grad/Comp Orals
Presentation Category
Health
Student Type
Graduate
Faculty Mentor
Kelly Karpa
Efficacy of Patient-Student-Partnership in Achieving Health Goals
304
The Patient-Student-Partnership program (PSP) at ETSU presents a collaborative approach between professional health science students and community members (e.g. “patients”) to help empower patients’ health while facilitating learning for students. This year, the program includes MD and RD students. We investigate the effectiveness of PSP in helping patients achieve health goals, what the most common goals were, and barriers and enablers to achieving those goals among patients. We further examine the program’s impact on patients’ perceived ability to make and maintain goals. Students have monthly educational meetings with their assigned patient, each visit emphasizing a particular educational goal or skillset. One program objective was for students to guide patients in creating self-directed health goals, called SMART Goals, which are carefully crafted to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Time-sensitive. Patients completed a questionnaire that includes questions from the validated Patient Activation Measure (PAM) tool at the beginning and end of the program. This survey data includes information on how goals were approached, barriers and enablers to reaching various goals, and opinions on the patients’ success in meeting or continuing to work on goals. In the 2025-2026 academic year, 20 patients and 34 students participated. We expect that this year’s PSP cohort will have an overall positive effect on helping patients reach their SMART Goals. However, considering unforeseen limiting health issues that many elderly people experience, we predict that exercise-related goals will be the least likely to be achieved. In addition to achieving their SMART goals, we expect that patients will report higher self-efficacy in terms of their health at the end of the program compared to the beginning, showing PSP to be a great way for students to gain experience and give back by serving an aging population before even finishing their training.
