She takes a sip of the coffee that lies in a blue mug stenciled with the words “you can do it”. She opens the computer sitting in front of her on the grey desk she just built last week. As she scrolls through her emails, replying at rapid speed, she pauses to look at her phone with an incoming call from the office. While she answers the phone, she continues working on the emails. For a moment, she stops typing to grab the paperwork, to her left, to read it off to the person on the other line. Her day has only begun. Arianna Korley hangs up the phone and looks at her mug to remember the words that she chose this morning, she can indeed do it, and continues working.
In the Medical field it is easy to assume that literacy is not something being put into practice. However, not all writing careers, or medical careers, are linear and sticking to one field to practice literacy is not necessary. Literacy happens all around us; it just may be hidden in plain sight. Which takes us to Arianna Korley’s story that literacy happens even in the places where we forget to look.
Arianna explains “since I was a little girl, I have always wanted to help people”. Which is exactly what her job focuses on. Nine months after graduating Clemson with a bachelor’s in science in language and international health with an emphasis on Spanish and health administration and a minor in business administration, she landed a job at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
At MUSC, Arianna Korley works as a regulatory assistant and also attends school to get her master’s degree. As a regulatory assistant, she works to be the liaison between the sponsor or clinical trials and the study team. She also monitors the team to ensure they are doing the right things for the patients, files documents for the team, makes sure documents are sent to the correct people (such as the team or doctors), notifies the team when deviations from care are happening or when closing the office needs to happen, and works as the facilitator between the team and the patients paying for the trials.
When asked how much literacy plays a role in the work she does, she responded, “Alot of literacy. Not only do I have to send emails and different correspondence to all the different members of the team, but I also have to study and understand the informed consent paperwork that is meant for the patients. That is if consent is required for the study. I have to make sure that all the documentation for the team and patients are good. It’s all about having the correct spelling and making sure that it all makes sense and answer any questions that the team or sponsors have regarding those studies.” That is only a little taste of the types of literacies she uses on a daily basis.
When looking at her the digital tools and apps she uses while at work, the list goes on and on. Using apps like team-meeting and authenticator, which her job relies heavily on, is important. “The app team-meeting helps to ensure that communication is happening with myself and the team. We need to make sure that the patients are being taken care of the right way. Authenticator is used every time we log into something. We deal with so much secure information, it’s important that we have that double wall to protect our patients.”
This is not the end to her apps and practices, the most interesting form of Korley’s work is the things that are used outside of the office. “I use some of the same apps that I use inside of work, when I am outside of it”, Arianna states, “it really helps me understand the use of the apps better so that I can ensure they are being used correctly inside my job.” These apps do not only extend to Arianna though, the medical team uses helps with the patients as well. “They can use the app to search the name of their sponsor, the study name, or read anything and everything they want on it (such as funding or survival rate).” To Arianna and her team, communication in these apps are vital to the study and the patients.
She describes her digital devices and apps as “the main source” in her job and stresses, “If the system ever goes down, we will have to move to a paper system. We have already put all the documents and correspondence in files and into a study binder. However, if it went down, it would be really hard to actually do the work because all of our sponsors live in different areas, like some in California, Washington, and Argentina. We wouldn’t be able to correspond with those people if our system was down. Communication is essential.”
As you can see, digital literacy and literacy in general, plays a huge role in Arianna Korley’s work and outside of it. If it is not answering the emails, it is working on the apps. Her literacy practices transcend to those in her field and outside of it, helping to care for everyone.
What from here? In Arianna Korley words, “I am going to do a more leadership role in healthcare administration so instead of being just an assistant I would be the actual administrator”. This job is “a steppingstone” to where she wants to be in the future. Just like Korley, with a little faith and hard work, you can do it.