Rough rough draft, need input please!

[buidi]

In the rural streets of Vietnam, a young feeble boy struggled to follow me. I turned to him and he reluctantly asked for food. There was an open wound as big as a baseball on his right arm and it was severely infected. I froze. Dumbfounded, I tried to grasp the reality of the situation. This young boy’s family was not able to afford proper medical care and he was forced to endure the pain. I immediately went to a nearby market to buy him bread and eagle oil. I did such a small deed, yet he looked up at me and whispered, “Today, you were my angel.” At that moment, my heart dropped. It gave me a sense of indescribable gratitude, but I soon came to a halting realization that there are an excruciating number of people who are medically underserved in Vietnam. Ultimately, there was not much I could do to help the population my family grew up in. This was the moment where I knew I wanted to pursue a career in medicine.

 

Since my parents escaped Vietnam to the United States of America in 1987, they struggled to communicate with others in English. When it came to medical situations, my parents were utterly distressed because they could not fully comprehend the medical staff. When my mother was in labor, the nurse asked her, “How are you feeling?” and my mother automatically responded, “I’m fine. Thank you.” Immediately, my father begins laughing because even though she was in excruciating pain, she still said she was fine. My mother thought that was the proper way to greet someone. Language barriers play a crucial role in providing proper and adequate care. Being fluent in Vietnamese, I want to utilize my skills and provide care to the Vietnamese-American population. In doing so I hope to overcome the language and cultural barriers that most of the patients’ experience.

 

This summer I will be volunteering with Good Samaritan Medical Dental Ministry in remote villages of Northern Vietnam. I will be responsible for assisting the physicians and translating Vietnamese and English in patient-physician encounters. Honestly, I am anxious to partake in this demanding mission, but at the same time I am excited. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” Though I am nervous to step out of my comfort zone, I am even more thrilled to have this opportunity to provide care to a medically underserved population. I am looking forward to volunteer in the future at a bigger capacity as a physician assistant.

 

My parents always wanted me to become a pharmacist like my cousins, but pharmacy never piqued my interest. It was not enough for me. I wanted a profession that required more direct patient care. My first two years in college I struggled to find my ideal profession and dealt with the constant pressure from my parents. I felt lost and unsupported which had an impact on my grades. I was not intrinsically motivated until 2009 in which I finally discovered a profession that was everything I was looking for. Knowing that I wanted to pursue the physician assistant profession, I put all my focus and determination into my courses.

 

The physician assistant I shadowed was a lot like me. She shows her patients how compassionate, intelligent, lively, and respecting she is. She speaks of her profession with passion and enjoys every day of her career. I find it extremely admirable to enjoy going to work and being able spread that joy to patients and coworkers. As I shadowed, I saw how each healthcare profession was like an intricate gear working in bigger system. Each profession is a part of a team with the same goal to provide the patient with the best care. Seeing how collaborative and supportive each profession was fueled my desire to pursue the physician assistant profession.

 

As a certified nurse assistant, I work with patients in post-acute rehab, long-term care, and assisted living. My patients became my family. As I cared for them, they also cared for me. There are many times when a patient will look to me for ways to alleviate their pain, but there was not much I could do within the my scope of practice. The limitations within my practice made me feel constrained to what I can actually do. My compassion for my patients made me strive to advance my abilities to provide the best medical care. I want to go beyond these constraints and be the first contact for those who need aid in health related problems and preventative care. As a PA, I hope to be an “angel” in the eyes of my patients and a guide on their path of recovery.