I will be graduating at the end of
this semester with a Bachelor of Health Science with an emphasis in Public
Health. I am fascinated by the epidemiological side of health care. I am also
interested in international health. So… you may ask how I got to be this way.
If you have a few minutes I will tell you.
When I was almost five years old my
youngest sister was born extremely premature. The doctors didn't expect her to
survive the night. Thankfully, through the hard work of the NICU nurses and our
fervent prayers, she made it through night after night. She is now 23 years old
and has been in and out the hospital a lot throughout those years. But she is a
joyful young lady. I was inspired but the hard work of the many health care
professionals that have served us these many years. One of the reasons I wanted
to be in health care was to help others like the hospital staff helped my
sister.
However, with all the medical costs
both of my parents had to work, and being the oldest boy, it was my responsibility
to take care of my sister. During that time I discovered that I enjoyed helping
people. I also developed a great love for those with disabilities and I have
had the opportunity to help people with disabilities throughout my life.
I was influenced by the T.V. show
M.A.S.H. For several years I wanted to be an army doctor. It sounded exciting.
I was also deeply touched by the movie Patch
Adams. I loved the idea of treating people instead of treating the disease.
This was a principle I focused on when I worked as a Certified Nursing
Assistant (CNA) at a nursing home in my home town. I worked there for a year
and half before I went to college. I loved my time there, while some of the
other CNAs would rush through their tasks, I would take my time. I would help
the residents feel like that small room they lived in was their home. I did my
best to care for them, not just treat their illnesses. It was a great time.
As I attended my classes, I found
that I loved topics like nutrition, epidemiology, microbiology and
international health. I discovered a more holistic view of health care.
Prevention is key, we need to help people before they get sick, and sadly most
insurance companies don’t pay for preventive medicine. I also realized that physicians
in general only cared about their patient’s physical wellness. As long as you are
not sick, they do not care about you. Also I started feeling like the cost of
health care was extremely overpriced. Much of that could be the fact that most physicians
have to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans to become a
physician. Therefore, they need to make a lot of money to pay off those loans, and
that money comes from their patients. So I decided to work more on the community
side of health care. I also desire to do humanitarian aid in developing
countries. I am shocked about the simple modern conveniences that we take for
granted every day. There are so many people that don’t even have clean water to
drink and enough to eat. In general, I want to make the world a better place.
