Personal Narrative: My Trip To The Field Of Public Health

As I exit the locker room, I strap on my black cleats and tighten my gloves. I grab my silver helmet with the lightning bolt logo, touch the sign that says “Play Like A Champion Today,” and walk into the tunnel. Finally, we hear our team’s name, and we run

The phone was ringing as I stepped into my house. My mother picked up the phone without realizing she would shortly be sent to her knees. She yelled for me to get into the car and we rushed into the hospital. As hectic as the situation felt, time seemed to pass by very slow in that car. We finally arrived to the hospital to find my father nervously talking to the doctor. I learned that my brother had been brutally beaten up by a couple of teenagers on his way home from school and, as a result, had lost most of his teeth.

Healthcare Professional Field Though I have another year and a half before I complete my schooling, it is always important to find out as much information about my future field of work. Knowing what is to be expected when going in for a job interview will not only be a bonus for myself, but allow me to feel confident when giving answers.

I was born on September 20th, 1997 on the coast of Virginia Beach. Now living in South Carolina I am 19 years old and living a very healthy and eloquent lifestyle. As I filled out the Real Age questionnaire I encountered many questions that made me think if my diet and health were flawed, while other times it seemed as if I was the pinnacle of health. I found at the end it had me down as a 16-year-old teenager. This three-year difference in what my age and what Real Age had put me down for really opens my eyes about how well of a healthy lifestyle I am living, and motivates me to continue living it to the best of my ability.

Pursuing a career in the medical field has always been on my mind in the past even as a kid. The main reason why I chose this is because I want to help patients as much as I can and better their life to the best of my ability. I will try to apply to the nursing program at West Hills to work on getting my associate’s degree and find a good financially stable job at a hospital. Being in health occupations is just one of the things that made me more interested in being in the medical field. A big skill nurses need in the medical field is speaking. Memorization is also a big ability. Learning about health and how the body functions is something that has took my interest while taking health

Three years ago my grandpa got very sick, and was admitted into Hospice. Every day I watched as CNA’s and nurses took care of him, helping our family. The support of those caregivers made me want to be a CNA for the summer, and possibly pursue a career in the medical field. Helping people has always been a passion of mine. The happiness I feel by helping others, is what I strive for. Compassion and kindness are two of my most valued traits. I would not be the person I am today without them.

HIV is a personal experience, but too often HIV care is seen as the burden of the individual, a situation that the person brought on themselves (Melton, 2011). However, one's personal experience is often larger than just the individual. The burden of finding relevant HIV information and care should never be placed solely on the shoulders of those grappling with the disease and the stigma attached to it. Just as social constructions and institutional inadequacies have gotten HIV positive black women to the point where they must find support within their own community, the repair of those institutions and rejection of those social constructions will aid HIV positive black women. The resilience of black women and what they have learned just by talking to each other will be crucial in the success of HIV programming, which should rely on an understanding of medicine and as well as an appreciation of the lived experiences of black women living with HIV. Black women, HIV programs, medical professionals, and even lawmaking bodies can and should work together to disseminate knowledge and form the best possible plan of action to reach HIV positive black women (Purcell & McCree, 2009). HIV outreach is not a zero-sum game; in order to achieve lower rates of HIV and more knowledge in the hands of HIV positive black women, cooperation is truly

Other responsibilities included scheduling, verifying insurance, cash management, collecting copayments, registering patients, and scanning clinic records. New Patient Services Representatives (PSR) were trained, medical records were reorganized, and streamline processes improved patient flow. Work also entailed creating a wait list protocol and working with Rehab therapists to coordinate and handle scheduling issues, that may arise.

Nigeria, 2001, I awakened startled with people screaming indiscriminately. My dad's head was bleeding profusely, and my cousin, sitting in the passenger seat was bleeding from his neck. There were shards of shattered windshield everywhere. I was in the backseat uninjured but scared. This commotion was the aftermath of

Having lived in three different countries in my childhood, it was a challenge for me to I wade through the unspoken rules of each culture. My Chinese heritage, reminded by my mother’s cooking, complements my penchant for Japanese snacks and trinkets. At the same time, I proudly represent Seattle where I grew up. My friends were often confused by my habits or certain beliefs and my family often did not comprehend what I was learning and struggling with at school. These obstacles were not solved overnight; I slowly learned to understand, taking the advice of many helpful teachers and mentors. I had to learn how to ask for help and advocate for myself. In my pursuit of medicine, I recognize healthcare transcends this cultural barrier, but the

When individuals think of dead people, images of loved ones might scroll through their brain or perhaps they are reminded of the infamous quote, “I see dead people” from the movie, The Sixth Sense. However, for me, the two words evoke a momentous memory in which I inspected cadavers. I was a teenager at the time, attending a summer medical program and it seemed as if I had entered the gates of heaven or simply put, the gates of Georgetown University. I had always wanted to pursue a career in medicine, and this was evident in second grade when I dressed up as a doctor for career day. It was sensational strutting around in my immaculate, white lab coat and using my Fisher Price stethoscope to “hear” the other students’ heartbeats. I felt the

Growing up I never thought I would pursue a career in healthcare. I always imagined myself as an engineer, someone capable of fixing the world's most difficult problems. As I've gotten older, I opened myself up to an entire new realm of possibilities when I considered more than just one

When I was a junior in high school I went through a major injury playing baseball, I tore my rotator cuff playing baseball and had to have surgery to repair it. Going through the process of getting it repaired I met a lot of individuals throughout the recovery process and one man stood out among there others. He made it a lot easier getting through the pain. Kevin Kennard a physical therapy assistant not only helped me out during my appointments but he would make the time throughout his day outside of work to help me get to my goals. That is when I knew that I wanted to go into the medical field, but I wasn’t for sure on what I wanted to do. Talking with my parents I have a lot of family members that went into nursing and they informed me about the careers my family had, and I decided that I wanted to be a nurse. When I graduated in 2007 I began my collegiate adventure at Northern Oklahoma College in Enid, Oklahoma I was ready

My first meeting with a Wahehe Sex Worker in Urban Iringa was a short superficial interview on healthcare access that played only a minor part in our USAID-funded study. But the interviewee thanked me vehemently, not only for realizing her ceaseless struggle, but for taking on her issues as an African, and for working with my professor every day to achieve true health equity for all of the sex workers and MSM in the city of Iringa. I won’t lie, the experience was validating, but I do not want it to be one fond memory in the background of my life but rather my life’s central theme. Like me, the Global Health Corps is dedicated to the health equity of all people regardless of sexuality, race, or ethnicity, and it has proven that it has proven

In 2007 I accepted a job as a Social Service director in a local care home. At that time I had already been working in the medical field off and on for about 15 yrs. My job was to visit each patient once a week and make sure all there needs were being met by the facility and that they did not need for anything. The more I got involved with these patients the more I became interested in what is going on in there mind and why they do or say some of the thing they do , was it drug induced or was it just their mind getting tired from age. I began to get intrigued more and more with the way people's minds work and why they think the way they do or act the way they do. It was almost like I would start picking at their brain every time I met someone