#theVIPExperience Post #58: Vikranth Doppalapudi

Crossing Borders:

I've known about the VIP program since my Freshman year at Xavier. I heard about it from friends and peers who applied and joined the program back then. I decided to apply last year and got into the program. Now I've been a VIP for about half a year and its been quite the experience. Coming in, I didn't fully know what to expect from the program and so I was excited to see what the position held for me. I love my time so far as a VIP. Not only do I find it intriguing and fun, but I also consider it a crucial position at Crossroad. I get to interact directly with patients and help them schedule their referral appointments, where I often times make the difference between the patient making it to an appointment or not. For almost all of the patients I work with, healthcare is not a privilege and it is difficult for them to even schedule and reach their appointment. So, I get to be a sort of liasion between patients and their healthcare, which is a responsibility and a privilege. Furthermore, I also get to interact with Doctors, Nurse Practitioners and other VIP's and learn from them, which is also fun! As an aspiring pre-med, Crossroad is just the environment I'd want to be in.

Earlier this year in March I went on medical service trip with Xavier University to Guatemala for a week. We worked in a small clinic in Sacatepequez and provided healthcare services to the locals there. We only had a primary care physician, a pediatrician and for limited availability, a gynecologist with us. We also only had limited medical supplies with us there. So often times, patients needed a follow up, further treatment or a specialist and the health care providers would mention that fact to us students when we shadowed them. Every time, I almost instinctively wanted to refer them and wished we had something like a VIP program there patients can receive follow up care, even after we left Guatemala. It made me truly appreciate my role as a VIP and made me realize the importance of having a follow up or a referral to your primary care. A lot of the patients that we saw in Guatemala would have been helped a much more if they had access to VIP's of their own. The experience in Guatemala gave me a whole new perspective to the VIP postion. All in all, I enjoy my job as a VIP and I have a great deal of respect for it. I look forward to all the experiences the position has in store for me in the future. 
--Vikranth Doppalapudi