This summer I had the delight of going back to the Will-Grundy Med clinic and getting to see more of how politics and public affairs can impact public health. Similar to last year I as given the opportunity to further develop my skills in scribing, patient interactions, and shadowing a variety of specialists which I was deeply grateful for. Furthermore, an intern and I also got to help work on two of the WGMC’s public health projects. The first one centered around how childhood risk factors could lead to truancy in children which was seen in serval childhood homicides in our servicing area. This was an eye-opening experience as it really showed how severe it was and common place it was in a neighborhood I was very close to growing up. During this I was tasking with researching recent cases, compiling data to present to the county’s truancy officer, and gathering different non-for-profit aid organizations to help some of these local families. As for the second project we were tasked with researching the up-and-coming HR1 bill which was recently passed. This bill encompassed mainly different sections but the one we mainly focused on was the effects on Medicaid as it primarily impacted our clinic’s patients. During the we assembled data on which cuts were made in funding/ stipulations to service and an informative pamphlet was made to notify patients. We also helped create a stakeholder’s map and debrief to notify people of the outstanding implication of the bill.
Overall, this was another wonderful experience at the WGMC and has deepened my admiration for the healthcare field and has taught me that there are so many factors at large that can affect people’s ways of life. This experience has furthered my dedication to the healthcare field, and I would like to hopefully give back and aid to others just as the WGMC has done for so many. I would like to give a personal thank you to the people at the WGMC who helped make this happen, especially Shawn Marconi as well!
