Setting an Example for Students: Stacey Gardner-Buckshaw

On Wednesday afternoons, you’ll find Stacey Gardner-Buckshaw, Ph.D., leading a Zumba class at Sequoia Wellness on the campus of Northeast Ohio Medical University.

The Department of Family and Community Medicine’s Director of Community Engagement likes to set an example for the College of Medicine students she teaches in NEOMED’s Social Determinants of Health and Personal Professional Development courses.

“I know everyone’s busy, but I think students find that if they make time for physical wellness or exercise, they become a lot more efficient in their studies. I want them to understand that even when they have competing demands for their time, it’s really important for them to take time for themselves, do the things that they love and take care of their bodies — just as they encourage their patients to do,” says Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw, who has trained extensively as a dancer.

Practicing what she preaches

An assistant professor of family and community medicine, Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw draws on her background in urban studies and public affairs to help students better care for their current and future patients.

She also serves as faculty advisor for the Family Medicine Interest Group, for the Primary Care Leadership Collaborative and OutReach. These groups seek to engage the community and collectively improve health through access to high-quality primary care.

As an instructor in the fourth-year College of Medicine Social Determinants of Health course and the first-year College of Medicine Personal Professional Development course, Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw teaches medicine students how to better understand what’s going on in their patients’ world and communities in the context of their families – where they live and work, and how easy or difficult it is for them to get to the doctor’s office or the grocery store.

Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw shares an example of how understanding the social determinants of health can help students practice medicine more empathically and effectively.

“In one of the communities where we send our students, the only thing close to being a grocery store is a Dollar General and there’s nothing fresh there. There are no bananas, apples or any type of fresh produce. Experiences like that help them think and to understand that if you tell a patient to eat better, they need more than that. The patient will only say, ‘How am I going to eat better? I don’t have any way to eat better.’”

A lasting impression

Her goal for NEOMED students? To get out in local communities and start thinking about the lives their patients live. She has written several grants to help students reach these goals, totaling almost $3 million since 2017. Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw works to include transforming primary care medical education for all levels of learners (undergraduate medical students, residents and faculty), opioid medication-assisted treatment training, and (most recently) integrating behavioral health and expanding the SOAR Student-Run Free Clinic at NEOMED.

“It’s been really awesome to work with a team of colleagues who are really good at teaching students to become well-rounded physician leaders, and at teaching them how to also become advocates. I think many students become doctors because they like science or have a passion for helping patients, but they don’t really understand the policy implications, how insurance companies drive care, or how policymakers makes decisions for doctors. I’m excited for students to understand how they as physicians have the capacity to influence policy and their own jobs – and how they care for patients,” says Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw.

But her work doesn’t stop at the student level.

As the Department of Family and Community Medicine’s director of community engagement, Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw works collaboratively with NEOMED’s primary care partners, residency programs and other health care professionals around Northeast Ohio.

She says work formerly as NEOMED’s HRSA Primary Care Training and Enhancement Grant Manager and current position have allowed her to connect her professional life with her personal life as the daughter of a family physician.

After years of learning from her father, Dr. Gardner-Buckshaw knows that physicians — whether experienced or in-training — must understand how to educate and make directives feasible patients and will continue working to prepare her students to do so.