There is a common stereotype of what going to a hospital or
doctor’s office should be like… it should be like Grey’s Anatomy. This stereotype is far from true especially
for the communities such as the one that Crossroad Health Center reaches out
too. I shadowed Dr. Delaat and Valerie
Smith-MBake (RN) at the West location in the pediatrics unit. One of the most eye opening cases that I was
able to witness was a patient that spoke no English; we had to call a
translator to translate everything that was being said. It was a challenging process, time-consuming,
and frustrating but the providers at Crossroad are persistent, patient, and
willing to jump through different barriers to be able to serve their
patients. Crossroad reaches out to
patients of all ages. I have seen a newborn that are barely a week old to
patients as old as seventy to eighty.
When I
heard about Crossroad internship I was super excited about getting the
internship but I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. I had shadowed a breast surgeon previous to
shadowing Dr. Delaat and the difference between the two were extremely different.
Shadowing Dr. Delaat opened my eyes to the type of children that are
brought to these low income health centers and made me want to potentially work
with children when I complete my education.
Starting the internship work at Crossroad after shadowing was not what
I expected the internship to be like. It
wasn’t difficult work, but the work that was required needs to be done
proficiently and in a timely matter. The
work that is required is to call patients that the provider has referred to see
specialist at a different location and see if they need help scheduling their
appointment. From that point, it is our
job to call the office and and schedule the time, location, and date for the
appointment then check back with the patient.
There are often many obstacles that the patient faces: transportation,
quickness of appointment dates, insurance acceptance, being able to reach the
scheduler, and calling an office that will accept referrals outside of their
practice. This isn’t always the easiest
task and often requires contacting the patients multiple times. But it is
nonetheless rewarding.
The most
rewarding aspect of this internship is the in-person referrals. In this case, you see the patients and the
amount of pain that they are in. At this
point there is nothing else WE can do for them, but we can lift some of the
burden and anxiety of scheduling an appointment for them. It is a very rewarding and eye-opening
internship that allows pre-medicine students like me to look at a different
type of health care system. If you have
the opportunity to apply to this internship, you totally should. Not just for the volunteer hours and
experience, but to express empathy to this type of community and to understand
the different challenges they face when it comes to healthcare and
insurance.
-- Colleen Guffey
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