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Ideagen Radio
Ideagen Radio
NaShieka Knight: The Future of Health Podcast Ep. 5
What makes a truly exceptional healthcare professional? Beyond medical knowledge and technical expertise lies something equally crucial—the ability to connect with patients through empathy, communication, and compassion.
NaShieka Knight, Director of Workforce Transformation at the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), brings profound insights into how we're reshaping healthcare education to build a more compassionate, diverse workforce. Knight shares the AAMC's dual mission of widening pathways to medicine while supporting student wellbeing, explaining that "we don't just want you to come in, we want you to come in and be well while you're practicing."
As healthcare evolves at breakneck speed with artificial intelligence and other technologies transforming practice, Knight emphasizes that future professionals must develop what the AAMC calls "personal and professional competencies"—not soft skills, but essential abilities that directly impact patient outcomes. Through personal anecdotes, including a powerful story about a physician who focused more on the computer screen than the patient, Knight illustrates why technology should enhance human connection rather than replace it.
The conversation explores how organizations like HOSA Future Health Professionals play a vital role in cultivating the next generation of healthcare leaders who combine technical prowess with human-centered care. Knight celebrates HOSA students who demonstrate the qualities most valued in healthcare today: resilience, commitment to lifelong learning, and a passion for service. For anyone interested in healthcare's future or how to prepare for a healthcare career, this episode offers a compelling roadmap to success that balances technical excellence with the human touch that makes medicine truly healing.
Curious about how to develop these essential healthcare competencies? Visit www.aamc.org to learn more about the AAMC's initiatives and resources designed to transform tomorrow's healthcare workforce.
Welcome to the Future of Health podcast presented by HOSA Future Health Professionals. Today, I'm honored to have with me Nashika Knight, from the American Association of Medical Colleges. Director of Workforce Transformation, Nashika welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:So great to see you again and it's so exciting to be broadcasting this podcast live from the International Leadership Conference, the HOSA International Leadership Conference. And I'd like to start by asking you what exactly is your role at the AAMC as Director of Workforce Transformation? What does that mean in the world of healthcare?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. Our whole team is excited to be here. Host is a highlight of our year every year. In my role at the association as director of workforce transformation, I have two primary areas of responsibility. One is supporting our strategic action plans initiative to widen the paths to medicine. We want as many students in every community who have a desire to serve in medicine, healthcare or biomedical research to have the opportunity to do so. And the other part of my work is supporting our initiatives to foster student mental health and well-being for those who are coming into medicine. We don't just want you to come in, we want you to come in and be well while you're practicing. As far as what workforce transformation means for our team, we've defined it as cultivating a healthcare workforce that can provide compassionate, equitable, culturally responsive care to all patients and communities.
Speaker 1:Well, you just nailed it. That's exactly what you're doing and you're changing the world doing it. I mean, it's an incredible mission. And so there's so many changes going on in health care. I mean, we see it with the pipeline of future health professionals. We see the future in AI and technology in general, just moving at warp speed, at speeds perhaps that haven't been seen in terms of transformation on the planet since the printing press was invented, since the industrial revolution, and likewise, this is that at scale. So, as we recognize that, what are some of the biggest changes? You're seeing, Gosh, where do we begin, and specifically in healthcare workforce right now, and how can students prepare?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. You mentioned AI, and the AAMC has an initiative right now that's really exploring AI in healthcare and medicine and looking at it not just to understand the technology that's involved, but also the ethics that are involved in artificial intelligence and also the impacts on the environment. So what is the environmental justice included in AI? In order to prepare students for a health care workforce that, as you mentioned, is rapidly changing, students need to be nimble. We always tell them to be well-rounded, to be exposed to multiple issues in their local community, to follow their passions and don't just be one track right, don't be single track. Cultivate additional skills. I always use the example of Dora the Explorer and her backpack. You should be constantly putting tools in your backpack so that whenever you encounter a new scenario, you have a resource or a tool you can draw from to help you through that scenario.
Speaker 1:So students should just be well-rounded tool you can draw from to help you through that scenario. So students should just be well-rounded, well-rounded and so well-rounded. Does that also mean what are commonly referred to as soft skills? I personally believe, and I see HOSA is transformational for so many lives of these students. With leadership, the leadership, the ability to communicate, they infuse into the pipeline the ability and the knowledge of how you can communicate with others. And so why are these quote unquote soft skills, including collaboration and flexibility, becoming so much more important today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that. So at the AAMC we don't call those soft skills. There are personal and professional competencies, and when we relate those to middle school and high school, we've called them first step career skills. These things are important because it's not just about the skill or the knowledge that your healthcare worker, especially your physician, has. It is how they treat the patient. You want a person who knows how to talk to you, who knows how to relate with you, who understands your context, in order to deliver the kind of care that you need as a patient.
Speaker 1:That's right. And so what are a few ways students can actually start developing those skills right now, even before they get into their specific profession?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question. So the AAMC recently developed a curriculum called the First Step Career Skills where we've taken those personal and professional competencies that medical schools are looking for and translated those for a middle school and high school audience. It's a video-based curriculum that has lesson plans, glossaries, discussion, questions based curriculum that has lesson plans, glossaries, discussion questions, you know, video guides to help students understand how to start building those competencies now. And the video series is conducted by a middle school student who's interviewing current medical students to ask them how they develop those skills on their journey to medicine.
Speaker 1:You know it's so profound, simple yet profound, and so I'd like to take that a step further. What specific advice would you give to students today that are thinking about the medical professions? What is that piece of advice that you think is the number one piece of advice that you would provide?
Speaker 2:I don't know that. I would give one piece of advice. I think I would give multiples, and the first one would be to think about what kind of healthcare you'd like to receive and then become the kind of healthcare provider who would give that kind of care to your future patients and communities. Think about the experiences that you and your family have had interacting with the healthcare system in the United States. What was good about it, what was not so good about it. Journal those experiences and then think about how you can build competency in those areas so that you don't fall prey to those weaknesses. Read everything you can Become versed in the world happening around you, watch the news, follow influencers who keep you abreast of the issues and trends happening in your community, and then do all that you can to become the kind of person you will want treating your family.
Speaker 1:And so what is one area, one thing? There could be a couple that students are not learning in school that you feel is critical to know.
Speaker 2:I would say empathy and compassion. You can be a skill provider, but if you don't know how to interact not just with your patients but even your fellow colleagues, even those who are on the interprofessional healthcare team, if you don't know how to be a good person, then you won't be a good healthcare provider. You can be the smartest person in the world, but if you can't interact in the system, if you can't engage with the patients. I remember accompanying a family member to a health care appointment recently and she was really having some struggles getting the kind of help she needed. So I sat in the appointment with her and the entire time the physician looked at their computer and typed out results and never had a conversation with the patient. So finally I had to stop her and say I think she wants to hear from you directly. So she had to turn away from her computer and actually talk to my family member. So I think empathy and compassion will be the one skill students aren't learning in their curriculum that they really need.
Speaker 1:I've heard a lot about that, even recently, and you know it's complicated with technology and maybe technology with the AI transcribers and all of that can maybe allow for. I've heard Doc say and other medical professionals say that that's one tool, electronic tool. They can help them focus more on the patient interaction versus the technology. I don't think it's the favorite thing for medical professionals to do to be entering all the information, although they have to right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So utilizing technology and then verifying that it's accurate and all that, that's a separate part of the process, but very important as well. But we'll allow, hopefully, the interaction like you had with your family member to be able to make it more real.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we have to look at technology as a resource and not a substitute. So if we start from the basis of ethical, compassionate care, then we can integrate technology as opposed to defaulting to technology.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and so we have the pipeline of future health professionals. It's an incredible pipeline. It's diverse and it's helping to create the communication that we talked about. It's helping to create the leadership that's so necessary. It's helping to create the empathy that's so necessary that you just alluded to and the understanding that the communication is key in all of this. Right, because there are people this is about people, right, and it's so personal. And so how is the AAMC helping to create that inclusive pipeline? How are you helping to create that you know, diverse set of skill sets and backgrounds and ethnicities and race and everything else where you're helping to create this future for this pipeline that's so critical?
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things that we're doing is just trying to expand access. We want access for every student in every community who has a desire to serve as a future healthcare worker to have the opportunity to do so. So we're amplifying different voices, we're giving representation to those who aren't always represented. We're elevating concerns of all kinds of communities that haven't always been at the table. So our goal is to really expand access and create inclusivity as much as we can.
Speaker 1:And then so what kinds of qualities or mindsets are you seeing in the most successful young people entering the healthcare field? We talked about leadership. Yes, we're talking about communication, but what are you seeing? What are those qualities?
Speaker 2:Yeah, students who are resilient, who know how to harness and bounce back from failure, those who are lifelong learners, those who have a commitment to service and leadership and who desire to make better the world around them. Those are the kinds who are really succeeding in the healthcare workforce now.
Speaker 1:Like the over 300,000 HOSA students.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's the thing that I love the most about HOSA students. I love that they take charge. You know, one of my favorite HOSA stories to tell is that when I first came to the conference, I was judging a competitive event the public service awareness and the students did an announcement about cord blood donation. But even after their competitive event, they actually advocated this was a group of students from Hawaii to have a cord blood donation question added to hospital intake forms so that every person who was giving birth in a Hawaii hospital would have the option to opt in to cord blood donation. Those were high school students. You don't get that kind of leadership everywhere.
Speaker 1:You don't, you don't, and so how can organizations like HOSA play a role, a bigger role, in preparing students across the country and across the world for future ready health professions?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think fostering partnerships and connections across multiple industries is one of the things I like about HOSA is that you bring together multiple partners. We need educators, we need community-based organizations, we need healthcare organizations, we need everybody galvanizing around our talented pool of students to make sure they have access, to make sure they're informed, they know all the steps in the process and they feel empowered and encouraged and they can see themselves reflected so that host listeners on the HOSA podcast here what makes you most hopeful or excited about the future.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited because the students that I see coming out of HOSA are passionate, they're compassionate, they're informed, they're educated, they're service-minded, they're leaders and they're all about solving the problems around them.
Speaker 1:That's the thing that makes me excited about the future of healthcare. And so, Nashika, how can folks learn more about your work at the AAMC?
Speaker 2:Sure they can come to our website at wwwaamcorg Nashika Knight site at wwwaamcorg Nashika Knight changing the world at the AAMC.
Speaker 1:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Thank you for all you're doing.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your empathy and compassion and leadership, just like those skills that are embodied in all the future health professionals at HOSA Live here today from the ILC the HOSA Future of Health podcast. Thank you so very much.
Speaker 2:Thank you.