Two decades ago, Donna Slovensky, a nearly 50-year faculty member in the UAB School of Health Professions, was diagnosed with a condition that narrowed her airway to less than half the width of a healthy trachea.
“It felt like breathing through a straw,” Slovensky said.
While the condition is treatable, it requires consistent management, including numerous surgeries and regular maintenance. For the past decade, Physician Assistant (PA) Amalee Smith, PA-C., has been facilitating Slovensky’s care, which involves a procedure called a tracheobronchoscopy and steroid injection.
Amalee Smith and Donna Slovensky
The tracheobronchoscopy involves a scope with camera and light that is passed through the nose and allows Smith and her collaborative physician to visualize scarring. Steroids are then injected to reduce inflammation and improve Slovensky’s breathing.
Inspired by the compassionate care she has received from her PA Smith, Slovensky gave $30,000 to the UAB School of Health Professions to establish the Donna J. Slovensky Endowed Fund in Honor of Amalee C. Smith, PA-C. Her goal with this fund is twofold: to celebrate Smith’s outstanding care and to alleviate the financial challenges PA students face, particularly housing and travel costs during clinical rotations in rural Alabama.
Slovensky jokes that she’s not an easy patient—claiming that she’s spent too many years in the medical field to not ask a lot of questions. Before choosing her providers, she asks where they went to school and if they studied at the UAB School of Health Professions. “If the answer is yes, I’m confident,” she said. For Slovensky’s PA, the answer is yes.
Smith grew up in Birmingham and graduated from the UAB School of Health Professions in 2007. She returned to UAB for her career in 2009—and apart from a few positions outside of the UAB health system, Smith has worked here for a decade in total.
“Her skills are tremendous, but she also has this amazing ability to put her patients at ease. I feel safe when I’m with her,” Slovensky said. “It’s no one’s picnic to have a camera down your throat and into your chest, but she’s very skilled at it.”
Smith also takes special care to remember Slovensky’s preferences for her subsequent visits. When asked how she is able to remember each patient’s specific requests, Smith said, “If I were in their shoes, I’d want my provider to remember too.”
But it’s not just Smith’s excellent care that inspired Slovensky. After working 47 years in the School of Health Professions, Slovensky knows exactly what financial hurdles PA students face during their time in the program.
PA school, which lasts two and a half years, involves a rigorous course load that doesn’t allow students to work outside of their studies.
“When I was a student, I remember just trying to make it through my next test,” Smith recalls. “My advice is to work as diligently as possible, never knowing which field you might end up in. Being faithful in the smallest task can have the biggest reward—personally and for your patients.”
PA Program Director Tosi Gilford, Smith, Slovensky
The program also involves one year of rotations, where students experience clinical life in 10 different specialties. Sometimes, depending on where help is needed, the rotations are not located in Birmingham. This means the student needs to find short-term housing for each rotation scheduled. One of the goals of this endowed fund is to assist students with the housing and travel expenses associated with rotations, specifically in rural Alabama.
“There’s a tremendous need for physician extenders and other health care professionals in rural Alabama,” Slovensky said. “Often students don’t want to go into those areas for rotations because the housing expense has to come out of their pockets. Students need the money, and rural Alabama needs the health care. Hopefully this is a way to address two needs with one approach.”
By supporting rotations in underserved areas, Slovensky aims to expose students to the unique challenges and rewards of rural health care and foster a commitment to serving these communities.
Slovensky is a longtime donor and a three-time graduate of the School of Health Professions. Before retiring, Slovensky was the senior associate dean and now serves as the Board Chair for the Dean’s Advisory Board. Although her field was in Health Services Administration, she chose to give intentionally to honor Smith and show future students what they could aim to be.
“I want our students to come away with the idea that if they approach their career the way Amalee did, they can make a difference in somebody’s life,” Slovensky said. “I want to show people that they can use that donation to highlight our graduates who are doing amazing things, and to recognize their contributions, but also motivate and set an example for our graduates.”
To make a gift like Slovensky’s and honor an area of medicine that has greatly impacted you, click here to see our giving opportunities.
UAB PA Program Faculty with Dr. Slovensky
