Week 03: Strengthening Women’s Health: From Exams to Empowerment

Diya B -

Welcome back, everyone! This week, our class is moving away from the respiratory and cardiac systems and focusing on an often neglected but vital field of medical study: obstetrics and gynecology.

It is no secret that women’s health in the United States has become a fiery matter of debate, with medical professionals scrambling to provide proper care without facing legal trouble. Despite the politicization of women’s healthcare, we as healthcare professionals must remain vigilant in our duty to provide accessible, essential care to prevent women from sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), vaginal, cervical, breast cancer, and more.

On Monday, we were taught how to perform Well Woman Exams (WWE), including a Papanicolaou test (pap smear exam), a routine screening procedure to examine cervical cells and check for abnormalities. WWE not only ensures that a woman’s cervical health is regular but also checks for any breast abnormalities through a breast exam, checking for lumps, which can indicate early-stage breast cancer. Generally, WWE is suggested every 3 years, starting from the age of 21, or whenever a young woman becomes sexually active. Throughout this procedure, medical assistants remain in the right hand of the physician by providing culture swabs, lubricant, fresh gloves, and a vaginal speculum. Along with physically helping the provider, our role extends to ensuring our patient feels emotionally secure, comfortable, and at ease during this invasive procedure.

Along with learning about the reproductive system and playing our role in protecting women’s reproductive health, we practiced dorsogluteal intramuscular injections. Similar to WWE, a glute shot is invasive, requiring us to lean on the trust we have built with one another to inject a needle into the fatty tissue near our hips. Although it can be intimidating, glute shots are a less painful alternative to providing increased amounts of medication to a patient due to the increased amount of fatty tissue around the hips and glutes.

As a woman in healthcare, this week was incredibly eye-opening and reassuring about the future of medicine. Even though our country remains divided on the concept of women’s reproductive rights, we must not allow these political battles to compromise a woman’s quality of life. By learning WWE, we as medical assistants are enabled to prevent a woman from having cervical or breast cancer or stop the spread of an STD before it robs her of her reproductive abilities. Even though these procedures are invasive, our professionalism throughout the process is a testament to our patient interaction skills and the technical knowledge we have gained throughout the class. As we grow closer to our clinical rotations, I am excited to see the application of our diverse skill set and share more about how our knowledge in the classroom is actively applied in the healthcare system to enhance patient care.

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    vincent_d
    These are amazing insights, Diya! I appreciate the connection you make back to the trust patients give to healthcare providers. On the topic of clinical rotations, how are you preparing for these rotations?
    March 3, 2025 at 2:16 pm - Reply
    jenny_t
    I admire your insight on protecting the quality of women's lives. Women’s health can definitely be overlooked, so it’s reassuring to see the focus on both technical skills and patient comfort in these procedures! How are you practicing these skills? On patients or practice dummies?
    March 3, 2025 at 3:57 pm - Reply
    daniel_w
    This is a great story, Diya! You did an incredible job describing the real-world impact WWEs can have on improving the quality of women's lives. It is certainly a shame that women's health has become politicized to this extent. What are some of the strategies and procedures you learned this week that help improve patient trust, and how are you applying these skills at the clinic? Thanks in advance!
    March 4, 2025 at 11:04 am - Reply
    diya_b
    Hi Daniel! During WWE, we learned that educating our patients can provide a lot of comfort and to explain what each tool is being used for. Additionally, going slow and ensuring we have consent each step of the way is critical for invasive procedures like this.
    March 7, 2025 at 4:59 pm - Reply
    diya_b
    Hi Jenny! We practice the procedure on each other; however, we verbalize the technique and go through the motions with our hands rather than actually doing this on each other. WWE exams are typically performed by the OB/GYN, while the MA must be ready to provide the tools (ex. speculum, cytobrush) at a moment's notice.
    March 7, 2025 at 5:01 pm - Reply
    diya_b
    Thank you, Vincent! My week 4 post is actually all about the mock clinics we do and open lab we have to practice skills we know our clinics perform frequently. At my clinic, intramuscular injections are very common so I focus on practicing deltoid and dorsogluteal injections.
    March 7, 2025 at 5:03 pm - Reply

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