My Health Philosophy

            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.