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Health care in the third world
Job shadow dentist
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I began job shadowing dentists in a Federally Qualified Health Center where previously I had been a patient in Shasta County, California. While shadowing, I watched as the dentists treated a homeless man, who had waited in a standby line for hours seeking relief from his abscessed tooth. The doctor worked quickly, yet magnanimously to provide the relief the man longed for. After healing him, his demeanor was noticeably different. Before he had been irritable and overwhelmed by the pain he felt; whereas, after receiving care, the man's eyes filled with tears as he expressed his sincere gratitude to the doctor and staff. Witnessing this dramatic change only increased my desire provide primary care services to the underserved members of our nation.
Since then, I have other experiences that have also increased my determination to help the overlooked members of our society. During the last two years, I have taught chemistry in an alternative high school setting. Many of our students come from generational poverty and have often lacked success in their educational experiences. Consequently, our students are missing a joy of learning. Accordingly, my greatest challenge is inspiring and instructing students, especially in an already dreaded subject like chemistry! However, one aspect of my job that has come easily, is mentoring students and displaying my concern for each of them. One such student is Michael, who came to our school with a GPA nearly below 1.0 and a dissatisfaction with learning. While teaching Michael this past year, I have helped him find a passion for science. Recently, Michael received an award from the American Chemical Society as the top chemistry student from our school, a direct result of his diligent work and love for science. I have enjoyed helping many other students like Michael; in fact, I hope to continue mentoring young people as I practice dentistry because of the satisfaction and joy it brings to my life. To summarize, I have found happiness in serving and working with the less fortunate. This happiness fuels my desire to provide exceptional care in my role as a primary care practitioner to each member of my community. I anxiously anticipate the day when I can serve the unique oral health needs of my community with compassion, in addition to helping young people realize the power of education.
I had the pleasure of being able to shadow Superintendent Shirley Hall of the Maplewood School District. Ms. Hall took the reins of the district over in 2012 from a very popular superintendent who was credited with making great strides within the district. Although Ms. Hall had very large shoes to fill, she seems to be doing it with grace and enthusiasm. She credits the previous superintendent with making systemic changes and establishing the overall forward momentum of the district, but recognizes that she cannot rest on past success. Her goal is to take the district to the next level of educational excellence by focusing her and her administrative team's efforts on the P.E.L.P. coherence model from Harvard University. This model focuses the leadership's attention on the interdependence of the various aspects of their school district and how they reinforce one another to support the implementation of an improvement strategy. One of Ms. Hall's mantras was change, but not just for change sake, deep change for sustained improvement. Therefore, although Ms. Hall's predecessor was able to put the district on the right path, Ms. Hall has taken the baton and run with it; establishing her own style and path to excellence.
I will contribute to the mission of the Nurse Corps Scholarship program by continuing to provide care to individuals in underserved communities. Medically underserved communities involve racial minorities, offenders and ex-offenders, crime or abuse victims, LGBTQ citizens, people with AIDS, and those that are economically disadvantaged. I was born in the small town of Monroeville, AL. It is a great town but it does not have the best resources when it comes to health care. Most members of this town, including my family, would bypass the hospital there and go to the one in the next town simply because they feel
I believe that people everywhere should always have access to adequate medical care. Where you live should not determine whether you live, and the PA profession was created to improve the availability of healthcare in rural and other underserved areas. As a PA, I would be eager to help people have not had access to the care they needed. I want to serve those that need medical attention but don’t have the means to obtain it—whether in rural Michigan, the inner-city of Atlanta, or the backwoods of Arkansas. Making great medical care accessible to all is crucial to improving public health, and it is a necessity across this country and the world. As a physician assistant,
Health care providers not knowing their surrounding community impacts the way they provide health care to a patient. I hope to use my background in community work with underrepresented populations and the qualities I gained to hopefully reduce and someday diminish the concern that health care isn’t keeping up with the demographics of the surrounding community. The third health care concern I will talk about is another near and dear to me which is the severely low quality health care women in developing countries receive.
When he is not running a successful dental practice in Massachusetts, Lennox Lin, D.M.D. can be found in one of the many soup kitchens or homeless shelters in his area. In addition to this work, he also volunteers his time and knowledgeable services to provide low income families with free dental care. Dr. Lin boasts that volunteering is as much a benefit to him as it is to the hundreds of people that he helps. It is truly a reciprocal endeavor, one which he believes everyone should take part in regularly. Through his various volunteer work, Lin has had the chance to reach out to his community and meet new people. This interaction has given him a greater understanding of the different classes and walks of life that live in Massachusetts. Volunteering has also heightened his social skills, as he has had plenty of practice in meeting and befriending new people. He also believes that the act of self service increases a person 's own self confidence. In general, people who give of themselves and their time feel better about who they are and how they are contributing to society. Having this new sense of purpose keeps everyday issues and stresses in life in greater perspective. When he has a rough day, he can think about the many people in his community who deal with far greater stresses and
This shortage of dental professionals may be attributable to a number of reasons, namely migration and low enrollment of dental students. Canadians’ Aboriginal and immigrant populations are growing rapidly and both these populations are experiencing barriers to access dental care.
I selected to job shadow my mom actually because I couldn’t find anyone to shadow in the career that I wanted, so my only other choice was to do my mom. I wasn’t really too interested in doing that job at first, but that’s what I needed to do. I spent my day watching and helping my mom checking out stock systems and how it works. I was also able to use the office equipment. I wore nice black pants with a nice sweater. We left the building for lunch, and went somewhere else to eat, like my mom does a lot of the time. During the interview, I asked her the questions, and she answered, explaining as she went along, and I was not able to catch it all. So I learned a whole lot about the job by doing the interview. I left at about 2:00 to 3:00 (I am not too sure exactly when) because my mom had some important work she needed to do, that I really couldn’t help with. My favorite experience that day was actually finding out how stocks work, saving money, and information like that.
I am fortunate that my experiences have made me aware of these things so that when I do return to these communities as a dentist, I can not only better serve my patients as a provider, but I can also be a leading advocate for the change that is so desperately needed by the individuals in these communities. As I continue along my career path in dentistry, I intend to keep volunteering in dental clinics in underserved communities as well as participating in formal organizations such as Saving Smiles to more effectively address these issues as well as enhance my understanding of the dental field. Perhaps while I serve in these communities, I can inspire and support future health professionals that will continue to advance the incredible changes that our health fields are currently
I can remember being a little boy sitting at the piano in church, listening to the preacher talk of how Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, which symbolizes the idea that we are here to serve. That message profoundly resonated with me throughout life. It was not until I began accompanying my grandmother to her multiple dental visits that I was able to see how I could put this calling of service into action. I saw firsthand the significant positive impact my grandmother’s dentist was able to make in her life, which encouraged me to want to learn about the field of dentistry. I then started researching dental health and learning of the importance of oral healthcare and how it affects the entire body. I then began to learn of how patient access to proper dental care was limited because of several factors such as, financial barriers, transportation, and dental fear, especially in the underserved minority communities. Given the shortage of black dentists, I realized I could make a positive difference by being an inspiration to those in the community, as well as serve in a professional career that would provide needed healthcare to the community. This is when I began to develop such a strong passion for
I shadowed a primary care physician (PCP), a cardiologist, and a General surgeon in Little Rock. I was introduced to triaging, monitoring patient diets, and transitioning from diagnosis to treatment. These experiences exposed me to some of the immense responsibilities of doctors. Through my experience shadowing Dr. Richard Jackson, I learned the necessity of compassion in a physician and that it is as important as medical procedures. I observed him putting a colostomy bag on a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with colon cancer. When she recovered from surgery, he noticed she was sad and scared about the colostomy bag. He comforted her by telling stories of many other children who also had colostomy bags at a young age and finished his conversation by making funny faces at her. This made her happy and her smile expressed joy and the beauty of being alive. It taught me that a patient’s emotional health is as important as their physical health, and both factors need to be considered when providing care. This shadowing experience enabled me to see what it is like to be as a practicing physician and further reinforced my desire to be a
My intern shadowing experience at ASPIRE, has made me even more excited about my internship position there this coming spring. After shadowing, I still believe that my HDFS classes and work experience has thoroughly prepared me for this internship, and mental stamina it requires. Through this shadowing experience I was able to witness and play a small active role in the ASPIRE clinics intern’s daily duties. I learned that my primary responsibility as an ASPIRE intern will be to help with the daily running and upkeep of the Aspire Clinic. This will include administrative tasks, answering phones, making appointments, communicating with clients, filing & organizational tasks, and supporting the staff at ASPIRE.
The hygienists and the dentists work well within their patient’s intimate space. Their work often causes pain, they lean in close to patients while they work, the patients are required to lay still in their chairs while they do whatever they feel needs to be done. Patients are likely to feel anxious about the pain, uncomfortable with having someone they do not know within their personal space, or vulnerable because of the position they are in. These feelings, coupled with any forms of dental anxiety or dental phobia, greatly increase the emotional impact on the patient. As a result, they make each visit one that can become a long-lasting memory, whether positive or
I spent an early part of my life in a developing country called Bangladesh which was a stark contrast to my life in the United States. Despite living in the capital city of Dhaka, which has a busy urban landscape, what always struck me was the sad state of the people struggling with poverty. There were malnourished children and individuals suffering from diseases on the streets. These memories have stuck with me and inspired me to go into a profession that provides service to people in need. People in my family have a diverse range of profession, but my dentist aunt who has done extensive volunteer work through her profession has always been a great role model for me. Last year, my aunt went on a dental service trip to Ecuador and provided free dental care to people who don’t have access to proper healthcare. These
Pursuing a career in the dental public health field was a decision influenced by many factors starting by my passion for research. One of the main reasons for applying for my dental public health residency at Columbia University is the fact that it has a great research program, which is ranked among the top research facilities in the world. Columbia university’s dental public health residency department possess ample opportunities for research for those motivated to take advantage enough to r...
As studying in one of the biggest entrepreneurial capital in Europe, I also wanted to experience the diverse, energetic atmosphere of the startup ventures in Amsterdam, therefore, I attended the Uprise Startup Festival in 2015. At the event, I had the chance to meet and network with a lot of talented entrepreneurs, so thanks to the great connections, which I have gained, I got a work internship opportunity at one of the exhibitor venture.