Your Contributions Have Helped Fund These Successful Activities and Programs

• STFM National Clerkship Curriculum
• Faculty for Tomorrow Residents as Educators Curriculum
• Publication of the Results of the TransforMED Demonstration Project
• Leading Change Course
• Bishop Fellowship Program
• International Scholarship Program
• Program Enhancement Award
  
  

Prasanna Vankina
2024 STFM Foundation Student Scholar

Navigating an Unconventional Path: A Journey from Arts to Medicine

Most of my academic background is in history/archeology and I mainly worked in the arts world before pursuing medical school! In all these spaces, I have been continually fascinated by how different people and communities understand and approach what it means to “be well”. 

I am incredibly excited about the truly universal and global applications of family medicine! I look forward to practicing in any clinical environment that values full-spectrum primary care and “walks the talk” when it comes to sincere, lasting, and bidirectional community connections. 

When I’m not studying, the former art teacher in me often reaches for ways to exercise creative muscles (ceramics, dance). While it is harder to make personal time for this during clinical training, any day that consists of sharing long walks, delicious meals, good music, and/or similar hopes with people I love, is a worthwhile one! 

I am incredibly excited about heading into the world of family medicine and fully sold on the power of community health. I also find education and teaching to be a very heartening practice! I do, however, sometimes wonder how conducive academic environments are to keeping the spirit and integrity of primary care alive. There are certainly role models in my life that have embodied this and I am hoping that STFM and the MSE conference will help me see that this can be the norm, and not simply the exception! 

As I progress through my clinical training and continue to expand into roles where I am more directly involved in caring for patients and their loved ones, I find myself asking: Which environments allow physicians to also prioritize similar dedication to the communities where patients and their loved ones are from? Where are clinicians, staff, educators, and learners not only reflective of the greater community, but also deeply invested in it? Where do people respond creatively, compassionately, and collaboratively to different problems, beyond creating committees and task forces? Which settings make it easier for people to align their values and actions day-to-day for a more just world? Where are people most hopeful? These are certainly not novel considerations, and I am so excited to learn more about how different clinicians at STFM have navigated these questions. 

I often turn to the folks who I look up to! Where, how, and with whom are the people I admire spending their time – and more importantly, why? STFM has been a common theme in spaces and relationships I find meaningful.