Ava Levy
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Dr. Nikhil Parekh
Research Mentor School/College/Department: VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System / NonUM
Program:
Authors: Ava Levy, Abigail Stephan, Nikhil Parekh
Session: Session 4: 1:40 pm – 2:30 pm
Poster: 95
Abstract
Whole Health is a system of care developed for veterans at the VA Healthcare System. Whole Health addresses patient care holistically to plan current care and preventative care. Using the Whole Health care model, medical caregivers can learn information about patients to better create integrative health treatment plans to promote healing. There are various important resources used in Whole Health, such as the Passport to Whole Health. The Passport to Whole Health is essentially a textbook explaining all areas of Whole Health. These areas of Whole Health are also explained in the Circle of Health, which visually describes the 8 key areas of Whole Health: Moving the Body, Surroundings, Personal Development, Food and Drink, Recharge, Family, Friends, and Coworkers, Spirit and Soul, and Power of the Mind. The Personal Health Inventory is another vital resource used in Whole Health to help the patient determine personal health abilities and challenges and personal goals. I personally chose to be involved with this project because of the holistic view on health and the connection to the VA Healthcare System. I was part of a research team on this project, and our research team started the project by conducting literature reviews to better understand where further research was needed. We then created a survey on Qualtrics and distributed it to healthcare workers, veterans and students. We received 167 anonymous responses over the span of one month. Once the results were collected, we conducted qualitative analysis in Qualtrics and quantitative analysis using the RStudio software package. For our quantitative analysis, we conducted chi-squared tests between questions to see how our survey demographic factors affected the amount of exercise and also to see how our survey demographic factors affected burnout. From our results, we learned that students often experience burnout and many do not have ways to alleviate the effects. I and two other research team members will be using this finding to develop our community health-based implementation project. For that project, we are creating a student organization at the University of Michigan for pre-health students to assist with social integration, professional development, and physical wellness to solve some stress-related issues
