Getting the opportunity to intern with the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic was an experience this summer I wouldn’t trade for anything. I got to experience so many unique perspectives that I wouldn’t have been able to get anywhere else. For example, I got to shadow and scribe for
several doctors who worked with a patient population of people with no health insurance and patients from low socioeconomic statuses. I’ve had the opportunity to shadow many other
doctors from big hospital branches and these experiences at Will-Grundy have been far different from any other I have experienced in terms of dealing with patients. I’ve learned how important it
is to change your approach when giving treatment according to your patient demographic. I had many of the doctors at Will-Grundy talk to me about how in order to provide the best care to your patients, you have to get to know them and understand how they tick just like the human body. I also was able to work with the office portion of how a clinic operates. I got to look into the behind-the-scenes of a clinic and how they pay attention to things like patient number and patient recruitment and funding.
I got to work with the team behind writing grants for funding for the clinic and truly got to understand all the work that goes into funding a free clinic like
Will-Grundy. I also was able to work on the patient recruitment front of the clinic’s operations. The clinic lost a lot of its patients after Covid-19 hit and has been struggling to regain patients to their location. The county of Will and Grundy also had a big problem in terms of people over-using the emergency room for issues that did not require that kind of attention. So the rest of the interns and I went out to throw an event for the clinic to recruit more patients to the clinic. We held an event to give free blood pressure and A1C level tests to allow people to understand their health a bit more. During this event we had approximately 50 people show up which was a big turnout for our small clinic. These experiences really showed me the importance of free clinics and the care they provide for people. It also sheds light on the amount of work that goes into running one of these clinics for me. I’d like to thank the Will-Grundy team for giving me the opportunity to work with them on many projects and for promoting and furthering my interest in the medical field. I would also like to thank Jill Rogers for helping me find this internship and helping me throughout the process of settling into it.
