Professional Goals Essay

To this day, my mother, a CNA at a local hospital where she’s been for the past 24 year, fears going to hospitals herself; let that sink in. This is common in the community in which I was raised and I’m sure in many other underserved communities across this nation as well. Many do not trust in our healthcare system and I want to work towards changing their perspective. I want to educate those in underserved communities on the importance of taking care of themselves and seeking treatment when necessary. Having been raised in an underserved community myself, I believe that I am in a unique position to truly make a difference. My other hope is that I can inspire the children of these communities to follow their dreams. Maybe, just maybe, they will be able to use our similarities as a starting point as they embark on the lifelong journey of self-identification and self-discovery. Having the opportunity to pursue my dream of becoming a physician, coupled with the potential impact that I can have on communities that are often neglected is the reason that I want to be a healthcare professional.

Working as a nurse in the most diverse nation on Earth provides limitless opportunity to interact on a personal level with individuals and families with cultural backgrounds that differ from your own, and the concept of cultural competency has emerged in recent years to address this increasingly prevalent phenomena. The barrier of language can prohibit a patient from properly explaining their symptoms, treatment options may be foregone or avoided due to religious obligation, and even the dietary requirements of certain cultures may affect a nurse's ability to effectively administer pharmaceutical medication. All of these issues represent the sound reasoning behind advocating for cultural competency within the field of nursing and healthcare delivery, because no patient should ever be placed at a disadvantage when it comes to their personal health simply by virtue of their cultural background. Research on the efficacy of nursing within culturally diverse environments, such as university health centers located in major metropolitan areas, has consistently concluded that "culturally competent care means providing care within the context of a patient's culture and beliefs (and) to provide this care as a community health nurse, you need to continually acquire knowledge, refine skills, and assess yourself … (because) becoming culturally competent is an ongoing process" (Huber, 2009). By adopting the practices of cultural competency in one's

The underserved communities are low income communities, communities of color, urban areas and older ages. They frequently have less access to quality healthcare and healthcare providers that encourage proper health. Additionally in many areas, the communities are not proficient in English and need language assistance or programs which are translated. I interacted closely with patients and their families in these circumstances, some whom traveled from India, Israel, California and other places across the

Generally, according to Hunt (2010), in a culturally diverse workforce, diversity education and training is important as it can provide individuals the opportunity to create an atmosphere in which people can work together who are fundamentally different successfully. It can also create an environment of respect and anticipation of eliminating past prejudices and stereotypes while opening up avenues of spiritual enlightenment (Hunt, 2010). Diversity education and training is also an essential tool for organisations because it provides their staff with the skills needed to step-out of their comfort zones (Bednarz et. al, 2010). Furthermore, Bennett and Keating (2009) added that diversity training and education is equally important for nurses in giving nursing care for patients with diverse backgrounds. This will give nurses flexibility to cater to their needs in ensuring that the patients were able to get the medical attention they require and to encourage them seeking medical treatment in the future (Bennett and Keating, 2009). According to Bhopal (2009), one of the reasons why ethnic minority groups fails to seek medical treatment is because they feel that healthcare professionals do not understand their cultural needs or they fear that these professionals will make negative judgment about their beliefs (Bhopal 2009).

As a Community Health Worker, it is important for me to understand the needs of my clients and equally important for them to understand my role in their lives. We all benefit from Patient advocacy—from the time of conception or to end of our life cycle. I believe in building a solid relationship with the clients for a healthier community. The positive direction and contributions with my clients will continue to develop the community, as a whole and indirectly influence potential future clients.

I have two examples I would like to share that reflect my nursing experience working with communities and populations. One is my experience volunteering as a nurse for a community health clinic in Belize. The other is my current job as a Heart Failure (HF) RN Navigator at Providence Centralia Hospital. These experiences have helped me see firsthand the many factors that influence the health of communities. They have also revealed many of the challenges faced by nurses and other health professionals who work to improve the health of populations.

I signed up to take this course because of my curiosity surrounding public health: what it is, what professions one can hold in it, and what its role is in society. Upon taking this course, my understanding of public health has expanded greatly and I am now able to answer my previous questions about the field. In class, we defined public health as both a science and an art, and I learned that this is true; public health involves scientists studying epidemiology and the incidences of disease as well as professionals who promote health in the environment and public sector.

Life is like a sheet of paper, it can be tattered, cherished, shared, taken away, and burned, but surprisingly it can also be healed and observed. I have spent my life, thus far, observing other people and the way they think about various topics. One topic that is rarely discussed is the state of the people and what can be done in order to help society as a whole. I see that the people need help. Knowing this, I have aspired to become a different kind of doctor. I am one who has goals of advancing diversity in the health professions, Ideas on how to reduce health care disparity in diabetes, and is currently trying to improve health care for all.

Life is a continual learning process, which requires a strong method to develop better ways of apprenticeship. Personally, being able to obtain a higher education gives me an opportunity to be better in many ways. Everyone should have any personal goals in life in order to survive, prosper and succeed in every journey that life gives. As for me, being a University of Phoenix student, I hope to achieve all of my goals on which I have been trying to pursue and obtain through the years. They are goals that I believe I need to have to be a successful member of the society, and through attending the university I also hope to gain a more positive image of myself, build my personal growth, along with achieving

As an undergraduate at NYU, my education did not focus specifically on public health. Although I do have some background in the healthcare field, my experience was more related to clinical medicine where interaction with the patients was a main component. While what

I hope to be involved in improving how health care is delivered by identifying weaknesses in our current system and taking the initiative to improve them. As a medical student health advocate for a clinic at Lankenau Hospital, I learned to identify and address some of the non-medical barriers to health that patients experience. Learning that issues such as childcare responsibilities, education level, lack of transportation, and financial difficulties truly impede the ability for many to obtain adequate health care was eye opening and further reinforced my drive to help the

My undergraduate education and experience got me further interested in public health as it allowed to learn more about these issues and questions I had which motivated me to keep going and to keep learning as the more I learned the more questions I had. As a result of this I took various classes that focused on the social view of health and the social issues that affect health along with classes focusing on culture. This was primarily because of the personal experiences I had growing up, but also because of the fact that I learned i want alone in these experiences. Many of the classes I took allowed me to begin seeing health and these experiences through a social lens as well as learning why culture is so relevant in issues like this. I also

Understanding your patients begins with understanding yourself. My experiences as a biracial individual have given me a perspective that allows me to relate to complex issues that patients face. I understand culture in a different way because I have not only learned about it, but I have lived it. I have experienced discrimination due to being biracial and have lost a loved one to a debilitating disease. I have worked with unique patient populations, including adolescents with HIV and homeless adults. I have held multiple leadership positions within the Asian American Student Union and have immersed myself within the cultural communities on campus. As a medical professional, I want to focus my practice on community service and create a patient

Since the evening of February 6, 1983, I have been taking a journey filled with joys, challenges, fears and obstacles. Born on the island of Montserrat, I grew up in a loving and caring society that believed education was the key to understanding and to opportunities in life. While pursuing my undergraduate studies, I registered for an Introduction to Public Health course as an elective, unbeknownst to me, that I would be so intrigued and develop a love for the field. The focus on community, health policy, and the strong urge to be proactive, and work from the preventative aspect, I felt was significant in reducing many medical dilemmas and stigmas that were seen in communities around the globe. After completion of my undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences, I therefore pursued a Master of Public Health degree at USF, to cultivate this desire of making an impact on communities as a whole, building infrastructures and improving lives.

From the materials we have used to prepare for the speakers, it is evident that public health work involves deep analysis of problems and teamwork, which are key components of a liberal arts education. All the speakers provided an in-depth look into their topic (i.e., they went past the surface level issues of their topic). For example, when Dr. Chosewood discussed workers’ health, he did not just discuss workplace