#theVIPexperience Post #200: Tannishtha Ray

 

    "I began my first rotation as a VIP in my first year of college. I had a narrow mindset of what the world of healthcare looked like but I knew that I was passionate about helping others through medicine. Being a Crossroad VIP has altered my knowledge and commitment to medicine in a positive direction for many reasons. First, I now have a greater understanding of what it means to be any sort of healthcare provider. I have met so many people working at Crossroad and they each play a very important role in treating and advocating for patients. While they may not be directly interacting with the patient, their compassion and effort to help out their community is what makes Crossroad such an effective and productive center. Another aspect of medicine that I have learned at Crossroad is how challenging it can be to reach patients--both literally and figuratively. Working with patients who are often too busy or less informed about important aspect of healthcare can definitely be difficult. No matter how understanding the patient is and how passionate you are helping them, it takes time and effort to make appointments and have patients follow through with those appointments. Various obstacles in life often take away from the patient's ability to focus on their own well-being, and this can be hard to witness at times. Fortunately, I have had many positive experiences where I can see the impact I am making on these patients, even just as a volunteer. This feeling of being able to help make someone's life easier is very rewarding and has motivated me even more to become a physician. Overall, I am grateful for my time at Crossroad and it has taught me a lot about working in a healthcare setting and what the purpose of being a healthcare professional is. It has also given me a greater understanding of what Community Health is and how crucial it is to help patients who aren't always prioritzized or able to recent devent healthcare in other places."