At a certain point in everyone’s life, a question must be asked: what is my purpose? I found my purpose after experiencing the dark realities of medical malpractice inflicted within the African American community. My mother has been a victim of malpractice. She almost lost her third daughter as a consequence of negligent medical care. This affected my mother’s mental health, causing her to be skeptical of medical assistance. After this terrible incident, her problems did not end there. She was injected with the wrong fluids in her knee. Consequently, she was not able to walk properly for two months. I have come to the realization that there are needs in the black community that are not being attended to. I believe it is my purpose to reestablish trust between the black community and Doctors. To achieve this objective, I seek a career in medicine as a Primary Family Physician. …show more content…
In high school, I failed Chemistry and Physics, two fundamental classes required for Medical school. Likewise, I received SAT scores, below average. My preceding experiences with science classes, caused me to work extremely hard at Howard University maintaining a 3.5+ GPA. Furthermore, it has provoked me to look for avenues of research. I am a firm believer that research is a mechanism that can build character while strengthening one’s academic abilities. Next semester, I intend to research at Montague Cobb Research Laboratory, where it will be my ultimate goal to discern how STDs affect the bone marrow of African Americans historically. Although I have made noticeable changes academically, I know my improvements cannot stop here. I would like to face more challenges while being in the midst of passion driven students and faculty
In the early 1960’s privately owned hospitals in North Carolina were allowed to discriminate against race as to whether to admit a patient to the hospital and/or grant privileges to African American doctors or dentists, as long as separate-but-equal facilities were provided. Dr. Simkins, an African American dentist, attempted to admit and treat a patient experiencing an abscessed tooth, ultimately being subjected to denial of privileges.
In 1869, she and her husband, Arthur Crumpler,even though he was not a physician, traveled to Boston and opened their own practice. Crumpler’s specialty was caring for women and children. In 1883, she published a book called “Medical Disclosures”. The publishment of this book also made her the first African-American to publish a medical book. Rebecca Crumpler has paved the road not only for my future career as an E.R physician, but other females, who have similar goals to achieve.Even growing up as just a woman, not even an African American woman, it is tough to try to achieve goals that became stereotyped as the only thing that males can do or that they can only excel at it. Oprah Winfrey, a wise woman, once said “ Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism” . This quote is powerful in the meaning that women have come a long way from not just taking over male jobs, Most successful doctors, lawyers, and even police officers are women. Crumpler established a sense of security and hope towards the future generations of not just a single race of women , but all of the races to show that we can do anything just as good or even better that a man
The relationship between black patients and doctors has always been strained by the injustice done by doctors in history. One such example stated in the book is the Tuskegee syphilis studies: They recruited hundreds of African-American men with syphilis, then watched them die slow, painful, preventable deaths, even after they realized penicillin could cure them. …
One of the major groups of people who can make this happen is the hospital staff. They have been accustomed to “going with the flow” and not necessarily informing its’ patients on upcoming dilemmas or situations that can be preventable within their facility. With the nonwhite population of the United States steadily growing increasing the number of physicians who are of various ethnicities could potentially decrease some disparities. Physicians who are nonwhite provide a “disproportionate share of care to underserved populations” ((Marrast, Zallman, Woolhandler, Bor, & McCormick, 2014). With more physicians of color providing care to people of the same ethnicity a level of trust should be reached thus improving patients care practices at home.
I want to be a MedServe Fellow for several reasons, with the ultimate goals of improving my community and providing a stepping stone between college and medical school. One of the main things I want to do during my gap year is gain clinical experience, something I believe I need before applying to medical school, and this program fulfills that desire. I could do research in my gap year, but working in a primary care setting would be the most beneficial in preparing me, not only for medical school, but for my career. My career goal is within primary care, and while I also could gain experience via an EMT route, I feel that MedServe provides a unique opportunity to truly experience and understand primary care. I want to have a more active role
Conclusively, low socioeconomic disparities, lack of proper access to health care services, grievous historical medical experiences, lack of awareness along with distrust are some of the leading setbacks within the Black American sectors relationship with the health care system. Thereupon, it is in the hands of the medical community and the hands of the vulnerable population to gain a common ground for productive trust. Hopefully, through new studies, with the reduction of distrust towards the health care system, the Black American can assuredly facilitate services to accessing health care and a developed foundation of trust from the health care
As a nurse aide working in a hospital, there are multiple instances where privilege and differences in power affect the way I, and those around me, engage with patients. For the privilege memo, I wish to discuss how my own personal benefits of being a white person affect the patients I work with as well as other minorities. For the community profile, I plan to take a deeper look into the black community, if possible specifically Somalian Americans. There are numerous new Somalian Americans in the Fargo community that I have encountered before both in and out of the health care systems. Delving into their experiences with health care in the America will aide my attempt to educate myself about minorities in health care environments both nationally and
The important historical experience of African Americans in our country has been shaped by the institution of slavery, dehumanization of blacks, segregation, pursuit of civil rights, and racism in contemporary American society. Disparities in health care provide compelling evidence that issues of race or skin color for the descendants of slaves and other ethnic minorities persist in the 21st century. Nurses providing care for African Americans must bridge the racial divide and incorporate culturally relevant content in the health history. As
Providers possess a multiplicity of roles in today’s society. It is typical that patients trust their physicians and should feel comfortable seeing them; however, not all communities can feel this way about their providers. Iatrophobia is prominent within the African-American community, and a history of medical abuses against this community may have a link to such present-day health inequalities as shorter life spans and higher infant mortality rates than Whites.
Although there are numerous reasons as to why I wish to attend this medical institution, its emphasis on serving underserved demographic groups such as African-Americans and addressing health disparities that continuously affect the state of health in our nation were primary motivations for applying to Meharry Medical College. Following residency, I hope to practice medicine in a disadvantaged urban community, where affordable, accessible, and available healthcare options are limited. In such a community, I hope to utilize my medical education gained from Meharry for the purpose of addressing the health concerns and disparities affecting those in society who are often ignored and suffer in all
I first realized my passion for health promotion and disease prevention the summer following my first year of college. I had the privilege of attending the Summer Health Professions Education Program (SHPEP), which introduced me to numerous healthcare professionals. During the program, many of the professionals shared their stories about why they choose the profession, and with each story, I began to reflect deeply on my own background and what drew me to medicine. It was not until an emergency medicine physician spoke about his experiences, that allowed me to fully understand connecting my background to my future. The physician mentioned growing up in D.C., which brought to mind my family in D.C. It had been almost a year since my grandmother
In doing so, he pays particularly close attention to black patients and their relations with health care policies and practices. Smedly maintains that blacks are not only the victims of, inpatient and outpatient treatment, racial policies, and other services but also the victims of its consequences. He argues that many health care administrators are agents to a system of inequality that support provider and administrator biases, geographical inequalities, and racial stereotypes (Smedly 2012).
My interest in providing culturally competent care inspired me to become a nurse practitioner, but most of all the inspirations came from the wonderful diverse patients I have had the privilege to care for throughout my nursing career. My primary objective is to care for underserved population communities. In my career, I have seen lives been cut short that would have been saved if only they had made it to the hospital in time. But because of reasons including lack of health care access, knowledge how to access care, cultural and religious beliefs, language barrier, and fear of being judged by medical professionals led them not seek medical attention.
I was raised in Nacogdoches, Texas, which is known for its small-town atmosphere and Stephen F. Austin State University. Due to being a small town, Nacogdoches lacked advanced placement courses; therefore, most my time was spent in non-challenging course work. When I attended SFA as a dual-credit student I experienced a minor shock, SFA was a step up from Nacogdoches High School; however, I quickly adapted and worked harder to maintain the pace of my peers. When I finally got accepted to Texas A&M University I again faced the same academic obstacle, and experienced major setbacks and failures. After my first semester of college I received a 2.7 gpa and received my first C in a class. Feelings of defeat and confusion overcame me—my goals of attending medical school appeared to diminish before my eyes. I questioned my work ethic and intelligence. Despite the feelings of failure, I never let myself fall into despair, and I moved forward. Every semester following my first semester at A&M I improved over time; however, the in the Spring 2016 I finally overcame my academic hurdle and made my best grades to date. It has taken time to develop qualitative techniques to retain information for difficult science
I would want to become a lawyer, who works in the fields of both sports and health law. I know this because because in the near future I would like to become someone who would have the skills and the ability to help people who are in any kind of need. More specifically I would like to become a medical lawyer because not only do I want to help people from the legal side, but I would also like to help people from the medical side of the spectrum. My greatest motivation more becoming a lawyer was when my father was sued for 1 millions dollars because someone had tripped in front of our house. I would say this was my greatest motivation because I felt that there was nothing I could do to help. Becoming a medical lawyer would be very great, because currently I am trying to receive a Kinesiology degree, so I believe a perfect job for myself would have to incorporate both health and law. By studying Kinesiology, I would be able to familiarize myself with the medical world, so that once I start practicing medical law I would have the background and motivation to become a great medical lawyer. In this essay I will try to explore every aspect of becoming a medical lawyer, while reviewing the trends in our society that will either benefit or detriment my goal of becoming a medical lawyer.