From the time Aubrianna Jones began playing sports, the word “teamwork” resonated with her. But she never expected that mindset to pour into her desire to work in clinical practice.
“I’m finding that teamwork makes a difference to patients, especially when they can see the collaboration that comes with it,” she said. “There’s an assurance that patients get when they have a team of doctors all rooting for their success.”
Aubrianna is a Trimester 10 Doctor of Chiropractic (DC) student and was recently accepted into a competitive four-month multidisciplinary Chiropractic Student Preceptorship Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Within the SpineCare Clinic at Froedtert Hospital, Aubrianna is fine-tuning skills related to interprofessional spine care collaboration alongside neurosurgeons, physiatrists, orthopedic surgeons, pain psychologists, interventional pain management physicians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, physician assistants, nurses, and chiropractors.
“It’s set up in a way that highly encourages integration, and I’ve already been exposed to such diverse approaches to spine care amongst different specialties in the medical field,” she said. “It is like being back on a sports team. There is an integral level of teamwork that exists between all providers.”
Aubrianna said often times, she wonders, ‘how did I get here?’ Growing up in Oran, Missouri – and just one of 22 students in her high school graduating class – Aubrianna had her sights set on entering the healthcare field which led her to initially enrolling in a radiologic technology program.
“Once I was in the hospital setting, I realized I wanted to do more involving the management of patient care,” she said. “My colleagues and supervisors encouraged me to explore my options.”
Aubrianna shadowed both medical doctors and sports chiropractors, with the conservative approach piquing her interest. It wasn’t until she got to Logan that she discovered a passion for evidence-based, patient-centered care. “Drs. Haun, Cerf and Boylan explained the importance of this and, over the course of many trimesters, I tried to soak up every bit of information from them that I could.”
She took advantage of Logan’s integrative health center rotations, working under the supervision of Dr. Patrick Battaglia and Dr. Kelsey Lewis and Dr. Kelsey Lewis at the Affinia Health Centers. “Working in that setting I knew that this is what I wanted to do,” she said, adding that Affinia serves the safety net population and these patients historically have not had access to chiropractic care. “Dr. Battaglia and Dr. Lewis and Dr.Lewis reshaped my standards for myself as a future clinician. They had an enormous impact on the trajectory of my career and what I wanted to do.”
Alongside clinical training at Affinia, Aubrianna completed a rotation at the VA Hospital, and she knew that experience in an academic medical center was the final piece of the puzzle to chiropractic integration. She applied for the rotation at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and was the sole student accepted for the rotation.
Now several months in, Aubrianna said she feels skilled and confident as a future DC. “I can say that because of the experience and training I received at Affinia and the Medical College of Wisconsin and I’m so grateful for that,” she said.
Ultimately, Aubrianna wants to practice in an integrated setting and eventually, end up back in a clinical teaching environment. Every experience, she said, is taking her one step closer.