Although he is partway on the long educational journey to becoming a doctor, medical student Garrett Thompson has already learned an important lesson about providing individualized care to patients.

Thompson, who attends Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, recently collected donations of CDs and record albums from the 1980s to give to a patient in senior care, who is a former rock musician. After posting on social media about the need for donations, Thompson collected a variety of items, including an autographed album, "Metal Health," by '80s band Quiet Riot, which was donated by Frank Lentz.

"I was thinking of ways to brighten his day. He always talks about his musical talents and how he used to tour with some famous bands," Thompson explained. "Since residing in the long-term care facility, he lost touch with his musical side. He has been having a hard time with COVID because in the nursing homes there are all these restrictions in place. It is a challenging time for everyone, but especially people in long-term care because they have a lost a lot of contact with their family and their friends within the facility itself."

Working with patients in medical facilities is part of the curriculum in a required course titled Health Systems Science, which covers topics such as the foundations of health systems, health care delivery and insurance, as well as teamwork and leadership.

"The art of medicine involves a lot more fine-tuning your approach to each patient's individual needs," said Thompson. "This course provides students with more of these skills - how to understand a patient's interaction with their disease and best tailor treatment to address all of their needs, not just medical needs, but also social and holistic needs."

Other medical students are also taking part in projects at the facilities where they are assigned. One student, Thompson noted, is providing laptops to patients in a rehabilitation hospital so that they can connect with their families virtually because of visitation restrictions.

"There has been a movement to integrate more clinical experience in the first years (of medical school) and get a broader sense of understanding how patients interface in the health care system and issues that come up with that," Thompson stated. "Health care is much more than giving someone medication. It is helping them navigate socioeconomic factors such as transportation issues - getting to medical appointments - and access to healthy foods. In a nursing home population, I have an opportunity to socialize and get that interaction."

Thompson, who plans to go on to an emergency medicine specialty, said he is enjoying getting to the know the patients on a more personal level. "The health care system has evolved. We are really good at treating diseases these days, but (the goal is to) treat the patient as a patient and not as (his or her) disease," he said.