UQ-Ochsner medical student, Audrey Shawley was recently named 2023 Students & Trainees Advocating for Resource Stewardship (STARS) Student Excellence Award.
Audrey is one of two recipients who were selected from more than 600 STARS students nationally and was presented with her award at Johns Hopkins University last month at the High Value Practice Alliance (HPVA) 2023 Architecture of High Value Health Care National Conference.
Audrey said she is very grateful for the STARS Student Excellence Award recognition, it is a reflection of the hard work that all members of our STARS team put in.
“The work accomplished this year would not have been possible without Taylor Anderson, Lily Morrison, and Marissa Scott,” Audrey said.
“I hope that this award shines a spotlight on high value care such that curriculum and engagement around this topic can persist at UQ-Ochsner.”
THE HPVA Choosing Wisely STARS program aims to prepare and support medical students to lead change within their own medical schools based on the concepts of Choosing Wisely and health care value.
In the first year of participating, Audrey and the other UQ-Ochsner STARS scholars organized a value-based care case competition and taught 6 sessions on financial toxicity in medicine during each Medicine in Society (MiS) rotation block.
“The MiS rotation is an opportunity to reflect on the numerous social and structural influences on a person’s health,” Audrey said.
“I think it’s important to have conversations surrounding how to address social determinants of health as a physician, how to recognize our unconscious biases that influence care before we even walk into a patient room, and how we can continue growing our knowledge bank on this throughout our careers.”
Audrey created a SOAP-V note type to help students organize their thoughts around value and social determinants of health when presenting to attendings and organized a journal club on the topic of cost conscious care.
Her nomination was made by Kathy Jo Carstarphen, MD, program director for the MiS Clerkship and academic advisor at Ochsner for STARS.
Dr Carstarphen said Audrey has changed the face of medical student engagement in quality and value care at Ochsner Health.
“Her example encourages and engages her peers.”
Audrey is one of the 96 new doctors who graduated from the UQ-Ochsner Doctor of Medicine program and will enter the world of medicine with a global perspective.
She said she treasures the opportunity to have lived in two vibrant cities during medical school.
“I think that comparing and contrasting both the health systems and the hospital cultures in Australia and Louisiana has provided me with a unique perspective that will benefit me in my future practice,” Audrey said.