Eagle Mount hosted medical students from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Great Falls at its equestrian center on Friday so the students could work on their nonverbal communication skills.
Eagle Mount is a nonprofit organization that provides adaptive recreation for people of all ages with diagnosed disabilities.
Noah Ziskrout, a first-year medical student, said, “The school places a lot of emphasis on our ability to communicate with patients, and I think the goal for today was to try to improve our nonverbal communication.”
“Students can interact with the horses and work on their nonverbal communication, but also their verbal communication and teamwork, leadership skills and much more. The horses are very sensitive and can serve as teachers to them,” says Morgan King, an equine-assisted learning instructor at Eagle Mount.
The Empact program at Eagle Mount combines medicine and horsemanship, allowing Touro College medical students to interact with horses and learn more about how their body language and communication skills impact patient care.
From the Eagle Mount website:
Under the guidance of a certified Equine Assisted Learning Facilitator, participants take part in a series of hands-on activities designed to encourage the development of leadership skills, nonverbal and verbal communication, teamwork and personal development. Through these experiences, horses impart valuable lessons and insights, promoting meaningful personal development.
“You just can’t see yourself the way others see you. And getting that perspective from a horse of all things was a real revelation for me in terms of nonverbal interaction,” says Ziskrout.
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine believes in the importance of experiential learning and believes this program offers numerous benefits to students and their future patients.
“This is where they get to bond with their classmates and work with animals that really hold nothing back when it comes to how they feel about the interactions with the students. A student may not really share that whole experience, but this is where they really reflect on themselves and understand that their interactions really impact their connection with the patient,” said Stephanie Zutek, assistant clinical dean at Touro College.
According to King, horses mimic human emotions, allowing medical students to practice interpreting their patients’ behavior.
“We’ve gained a lot of important insights by learning how they enter a room, how they interact with other people, how they recognize their own body language, what their communication skills are and how well they can verbally explain to others how to do things,” King said.
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