Friday, October 26, 2018

Virginia Academy of Family Physicians selects LUCOM student-doctor to be student representative

Fri, 26 Oct 2018Asa Keimig | LUCOM Marketing

Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) second-year student-doctor Morgan Jeffreys has been selected to serve as the student representative to the Virginia Academy of Family Physicians (VAFP) Board of Directors. Jeffreys, class of 2021, was voted into the position through an election conducted by students from medical schools throughout Virginia.

Her new role will be to represent medical students, both MD and DO, from the six medical schools in Virginia and will involve her traveling to and participating in the quarterly meetings for the VAFP Board of Directors. Meetings are held at different locations around the state as well as the national American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) conference in the Kansas City next summer. She is responsible for making herself available to Virginia medical students, carefully listen to their concerns or ideas, and inform the MDs and DOs on the board of those needs and work with the group to help facilitate those needs.

She was approached by LUCOM professors Raena M. Pettitt, DO, and Sigmund P. Seiler, MD, both already involved in the VAFP, who told her about the position and encouraged her to apply. “I was already involved in American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, the osteopathic counterpart of the AAFP, and was interested in the mix of allopathic and osteopathic opportunities that the VAFP offered,” said Jeffreys. “Family Medicine serves so many Americans, especially those with limited access to health care, and expanding LUCOM’s representation and involvement in the VAFP was another way to raise awareness about family med and give more professional and service events to LUCOM students.”

Jeffreys is committed to raising awareness of and attention to the osteopathic perspective in the importance of family medicine. “In light of the merging match between allopathic and osteopathic residencies, I am very excited to tell our allopathic counterparts about our perspective and to link LUCOM students to the allopathic family medicine community in Virginia,” she said.

Her goal is to take student concerns and turn them into action steps that benefit the medical students of Virginia, ultimately encouraging medical students to get excited about primary care.

“LUCOM as a whole, is incredibly lucky to have family medicine faculty that are so enthusiastic about their area of medicine, that believe in it and spend many extra hours supporting student clubs and giving ideas or expertise for events that promote family medicine,” Jeffreys said. “LUCOM has garnered the interest of the medical schools in Virginia so visibly, with many talented and dedicated faculty representing it and my hope is that our students can continue to move into leadership roles and contribute to our profession. As believers, it is a chance to represent Christ and to bring attention to Him, to make people curious about our source of joy and reason for serving patients.”

Jeffreys will serve on the board until the Fall of 2019 until another medical student is elected to replace her.