Volunteering at Crossroads had been a huge breakthrough for me when it comes to my
interest in medicine and patient care. I have come to discover more about my love of working
with patients and helping them have a better patient and healthcare experience. It really put
things into perspective for me when it comes to scheduling referrals as I had not realized how
tedious and time consuming the process of just scheduling one referral can be. Up until I was 18,
my mother would always schedule my appointments for me, and I had always thought it was the
easiest thing in the world. Just a single phone call, I would always think to myself. I didn’t keep
in mind how long you can be on hold when calling care provider offices, or the hassle working
with insurance companies can be. As a volunteer intern at Crossroads, I got to experience all of
that, and I was able to truly perceive the difficulties that patients especially ones with low
income have to go through to schedule a single appointment/referral. These are the same patients
that work 1 to 3 jobs full time every single day to provide for themselves and/or their families,
not to mention they also have the responsibility of scheduling their kids’/family members’
appointments as well.
In addition to that, my eyes were opened to how much more of a difficult process it is for
the Spanish speaking patient community as the language barrier proposes another obstacle for
them and may make them hesitant from reaching out for help from a doctor/scheduling a
checkup thinking that their language barrier will make it not worth it. I have worked with a
couple of Spanish speaking patients as I have taken Spanish for almost 6 years, and I wanted to
use the gifts I had in helping others which is another thing that Crossroad taught me. In life we
are given gifts, whether they’re inherent gifts, privileges, or ones we had to work for. We can
and should use these gifts to help those around us because that is what brings us together and
makes us all united and help make the world a better place, even if it is the little things. One of
my gifts that I remain thankful for, is that I was able to get an education in Spanish and continue
to pursue a minor in it. I feel very honored to be able to share that with people who need it. Just
hearing the words “gracias” or “thank you that really took a lot of load off my shoulder” from
one of the patients I talked to one day made me so happy and more motivated to continue to try
my best to make every patient experience count and to make sure they know that we are there for
them and we care for their health which is why we as volunteer interns do this. I am thankful to
be a part of this experience and will always continue to try my best to provide the patient
community at Crossroads with the best and most accessible healthcare experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment