A Glimpse into a Healthcare Revolution: PNWU’s 2021 Research Symposium

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For a research development facilitator like me, PNWU’s Research Symposium is the apex of a yearlong hike; it’s the moment when I reach the top of the mountain and feel the astounding view suck the wind from my lungs. Sure, it’s marketed as our hallmark of research, but it’s so much more than that.

PNWU’s Research Symposium provides a stage, a spotlight and a microphone to some of the most inspiring and engaging students, faculty, and community partners I’ve ever met. As they showcase their research projects and unique findings, they also showcase the passions that will go on to reshape healthcare for all of us.

Presented virtually, the 2021 Research Symposium will feature posters and pre-recorded presentations from our researchers. Better yet, you don’t have to fit it all in on one day: everything will be available from April 5-11.

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And perhaps the most exciting part of all: WE ALL have a chance to ask these inspiring presenters our questions during a live Q & A session on April 9.

I’m blessed with a front row seat to this work. And don’t tell anyone this, but… I’ve already seen this year’s research projects! Shhh!

In my role at PNWU, I help our students and faculty turn questions about health and healthcare into research projects with feasible goals and, ideally, tangible community impacts. By mixing a host of real community health challenges into our available bubbling caldron of intellectual curiosity, we work to support our neighbors who are faced with the healthcare inequities that plague rural and medically underserved communities throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

I am so incredibly proud of our submissions this year because we’ve seen an increased focus on bridging gaps in health disparities in a time where conducting research has been especially difficult because of COVID-19 restrictions. While most of our participants are from PNWU and Heritage, we’ve been fortunate to attract submissions from a number of community partners, including SeaMar, the Yakima Union Gospel Medical Care Center, Trios Health, and the Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic.

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In a recent conversation with Dr. Kathaleen Briggs Early, chair of PNWU’s Research Committee, she told me about one of her big hopes for this year’s research: “I hope the local community sees that a lot of our scholarly work focuses on issues that impact ‘ordinary people,’” she explained.

Dr. Briggs Early’s musings are reflected in the top scoring abstracts for this year’s Symposium, five of whom were offered coveted oral presentations. These topics include a cadaver study estimating liver volume in elderly subjects, a project examining the impact of isolation and social connectedness on burnout for medical residents, the impact of grit on perceived stress and sleep quality in medical students, health inequities among People of Color during the COVID-19 pandemic, and blood pressure outcomes among rural patients here in the Yakima Valley.

Our students and community partners are working so hard to critically examine healthcare and pave a way towards sustainable and equitable change. Please join me in celebrating their hard work and encouraging their quest for scientific inquiry! Admission to this year’s Symposium is free, but you must register through our EventBrite page here. Registering gains you access to our virtual poster hall, pre-recorded presentations, and Zoom links for the live question and answer sessions.


 
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Lizzie Lamb, MPH

Research Development Facilitator

Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences

Lizzie Lamb