First Nursing School CoSMO co-chair reflects on "running the show"

Sarah Rives, ’13, typically meets challenges head-on. As a volunteer at a clinic in the Dominican Republic, she developed a rapid testing program to reduce maternal HIV transmissions for women already in labor.

As an AIDS education supervisor at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, she identified and eliminated barriers that prevented patients from following their anti-retroviral drug regimen.

And as a nursing student, she worked to serve the uninsured population of Washington Heights as the first nursing student co-Chair of Columbia Student Medical Outreach (CoSMO), the primary care center staffed by Columbia Nursing, Medical, Public Health, and Social Work students.

“So many patients at COSMO were poorly managing their Type 2 diabetes,” recalls Rives. “One man I worked with was living in a room in an apartment and didn’t have access to a kitchen where he could prepare healthier meals. Despite all of the factors making it difficult for him to control his diabetes, by keeping in regular contact with him to coordinate his care, his blood glucose level dropped considerably.”   

Rives first learned of CoSMO as a volunteer at La Clinica de Familia in La Romana in the Dominican Republic, which is also a clinical exchange site for the School of Nursing and the College of Physicians & Surgeons. Rives knew immediately that she wanted to work there after hearing about students’ hands-on role with CoSMO patients from Columbians including Rives’ future husband Tyler Gray, then a P &S student.

“I was impressed that students were the ones running the show while at the same time providing top-quality care to undocumented immigrants and the uninsured,” she says.

“I loved the clinical side of working with the patients,” says Rives, who had received her Masters’ in Public health from Emory University before volunteering at La Romana. Another meaningful relationship she forged in La Romana was with then CUSON student, Caroline Carnevale, ’06 ’09.

“When Caroline explained what a nurse practitioner does, I realized that was the path I needed to be on,” says Rives.

Back in New York, Rives volunteered at CoSMO serving as an interpreter after applying to the spring 2010 combined BS/MS program at Columbia School of Nursing. Once accepted, she continued working at the clinic, and after receiving her RN license after her first year, she shifted into a teaching role at CoSMO, serving as a nurse preceptor. During the end of the Fall 2011 semester, Rives accepted the position as a CoSMO co-chair, the first nursing student to be offered the job.

Rives graduates next month, and plans on pursuing opportunities at community health clinics in Northern California, where she has settled with her husband. She credits communicating with other medical team members as a key skill she learned from co-chairing CoSMO.

“CoSMO is an open environment,” she says. “I could bounce ideas off medical students and the attending physician and I always felt heard. It just made sense for everyone to collaborate together to improve the patients’ experiences.”

Ultimately, it was the difference in the lives of patients she found most rewarding.

“It was an amazing opportunity to provide closer follow-up to the patients that needed it the most,” she says. “It seems like most of them were really satisfied with the care we gave them.”