The Role of the Health Professions Advisor
Dr. Spence is the Health Prfoessions Advisor at UT Permian Basin
Since students at colleges and universities all over Texas might be reading this, the first thing I need to emphasize is that health profession advising systems differ from school to school for a number of reasons. Obviously the size of the school influences how the policies, procedures, and staff of the health professions advising offices operate. At the huge schools like the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University the health professions advising office operates with a large staff of assistants who tend to specialize by program. At the smaller schools, advising is likely to be handled by only one or a very few people who often have another “main” job. Here at UT Permian Basin, for example, I am a full time biology faculty member who does the health professions advising as an “extra” service duty; as the advisor I’m a one-man band, doing everything from being the JAMP Faculty Director to licking the envelopes closed when I mail letters of recommendation.
Still, whether large or small, health professions advising offices tend to have certain things in common, and health professions advisors work to achieve the same goal: to help their students succeed in reaching their goals in the health professions. For that reason, wherever you are, it is in your best interest as a pre-med to familiarize yourself with the procedures and personnel of your institution’s health professions advising office. Conversely, it will help you to know what your health professions advisor’s job consists of. So, what follows is a list of major things your health professions advisor does to help you successfully enter a health professions program:
Professional responsibilities
While a health professions advisor is not expected to be himself or herself a medical doctor or other health professional, he or she should know a little something about the health professions, such as the latest issues affecting the health professions and the various specialties or post-graduate education available.
The health professions advisor should stay familiar with each medical school and other health professional school, understanding their philosophy, mission, and goals.
Basic characteristics
Good, dedicated health professions advisors put their effort where it counts. Understanding the importance of deadlines, they tend to be organized, punctual, and efficient, they maintain good files, and above all they know the value of communication.
It is of the utmost importance that health professions advisors know their students. Health professions advisors should be familiar with their students’ academic standing and extracurricular activities, personality, strengths and weaknesses, and from those be able to assess their students’ general aptitude and promise for the health professions.
Be sensitive, also, to the hardest part of the job that all health professions advisors must face from time to time: advising the unsuccessful student. Perhaps the disappointing MCAT score was the result of one bad day, or the bad grade in a course was the result of one bad semester, but perhaps these are indicators of how things might always be. For the short term difficulty, a health professions advisor can help counsel and support a student past a weak semester or MCAT score. But if the difficulty, for whatever reasons, looks insurmountable, the health professions advisor must also know when to say, “Let’s consider other career options.”
Last, you have a responsibility to be an open, willing, and communicative advisee, even if the news is bad. Visit your health professions advisor regularly to update them on your academic progress, professional preparation, and any interesting extracurricular activities. The same goes if you are having academic difficulties, if your grades have crashed, or if you were disappointed in your MCAT score, please do not clam up and disappear because you are embarrassed or ashamed for your advisor to know. Quite the contrary, your advisor can help you decide how to recover from a setback. Remember, your health professions advisor is likely to be writing the most important of your letters of evaluation when you go to apply to medical school, and he or she knows what to say and how to say it. Observing and doing the little niceties that keep your advisor up to date will, collectively and in the long run, do wonders for his or her ability to write an informative, thoughtful, balanced, and helpful letter of evaluation in support of you being the best applicant you can be.