Three students in Des Moines University’s Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine program attended the American Medical Association’s Medical Student Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C., on March 7-8, 2024. Here we learned important advocacy skills to advocate for physicians, patients and the community. We networked with other students and heard from a variety of inspirational and informative speakers regarding advocacy and the specific topics we planned to advocate on. We teamed up with two additional medical students from the University of Iowa to advocate for Iowans on Capitol Hill.
On Thursday, March 7, before the conference began, the five of us squeezed in a meeting with Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and one of his health policy staffers. In our meeting we discussed lowering prescription costs, increasing the physician workforce and expanding access to opioid use disorder treatment. We specifically asked Sen. Grassley to co-sponsor bills S. 644, the Modernizing Opioid Treatment Access Act; S. 1302, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act; and S. 1375, the Help Ensure Lower Patient Copays Act. We concluded the meeting with a photograph, which was later posted to Sen. Grassley’s Twitter/X account.
We then attended the first day of the conference, where we heard from a variety of speakers, networked with other students and had professional headshots taken. We ended the day with more networking at the dinner provided by the AMA.
On Friday, March 8, we kicked off the day with some additional speakers who gave us some last-minute tips on advocating. When the speakers were finished, we teamed up with the other students from our state and developed a plan for advocating during our hill meetings. We boarded the bus and left for the U.S. Capitol. When we arrived, we got a few pictures with other attendees on the front steps. It felt very empowering to stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a mass of other medical students passionate about advocating for their future patients and communities.
We then headed to our first meeting with Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst in the Russell Senate Office Building. We spoke to staff member Layne Greenwood. We started the meeting off by thanking Sen. Ernst for co-sponsoring bill S. 1375 to help lower prescription drug costs for patients. We also discussed expanding the physician workforce and expanding access to opioid use disorder treatment by asking Sen. Ernst to co-sponsor bills S. 644 and S. 1302. We each told our own stories about why these bills were important to us. We thanked Layne for meeting with us and used the tunnels under the U.S. Capitol to head off to our next meeting.
Next, we met with Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn and one of his staffers in the Longworth House Office Building. During our meeting we discussed lowering prescription drug costs, expanding the physician workforce and expanding access to opioid use disorder treatment. Rep. Nunn was very receptive to our topics and had some great questions for us in response. We had a good discussion and specifically asked Rep. Nunn to co-sponsor bills H.R. 1359 on opioid treatment; H.R. 7050, which would increase residency positions for hospitals that have addiction or pain medicine programs; H.R. 2389 to increase residency positions; and H.R. 830 the HELP Copays Act. We took a photo with Rep. Nunn, thanked him and headed off to our next meeting.
Next, we met with a staffer from the office of Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, also in the Longworth House Office Building. We thanked her for her support of bill H.R. 830 to lower prescription drug costs. We discussed expanding the physician workforce and expanding access to opioid use disorder treatment. The staffer had some questions on the research behind expanding access to opioid use disorder treatment, which we followed up on with an email containing evidence-based research studies that supported implementation of the bill. We specifically asked Rep. Miller-Meeks to co-sponsor bills H.R. 1359, H.R. 7050 and H.R. 2389. We thanked the staffer and explored the office building to find the offices of a few more of our favorite congressmen and women.
It was a long day, and I think we were all exhausted with very sore feet by the end. However, it was well worth it to be able to advocate for physicians, our future patients and our communities! We learned a lot about advocacy, we met several other students, made some new friends and hoped we had made a difference on the hill. We plan to take what we learned back to our chapter to inspire and teach other club members the advocacy skills we learned.
I know I speak for all of us when I say that we felt very empowered and hope to continue our work year-round as we prepare for advocating at the state level and the next advocacy conference next year.
