2018 AMRI Scholarship Program by Hannah Hill

Author: Hannah Hill

School: University of Rochester

Area of Study: Accelerated Bachelors Program for Non-Nurses

Introduction

A career within the healthcare field, regardless of what my title would be, has always been my desire for as long as I can remember. I appreciate the field of medicine, for it is complex, innovative and constantly evolving to produce the next big scientific discovery that may benefit human health. However, the concept of healthcare is not all about forging these new scientific discoveries. It is also about making an impact, however minor it may be, on an individual’s life every single day. This is something I have come to realize over my time spent working as a caregiver, and is one of the primary motivators for me pursing a degree in nursing.

Becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant

In college, I participated in education abroad through the International Education of Students program in London, United Kingdom, and at Oxford University, where I participated in courses taught by healthcare professionals who have provided healthcare services worldwide. These instructors helped increase my awareness of the many health disparities present across global societies. Following my course work in London, I travelled to Kingston, Jamaica, where I was able to observe at the MONA School of Nursing and job shadow various public health nurses in both urban and rural health clinics as they delivered mental health services.  Often, these services are administered under a tin roof in a small concrete shack in the rain forest, where nurses attempt to visit once a month. Public health nurses serve as the backbone of the health care system in Jamaica, as doctors are scarce, especially within the more rural areas. Additionally, I spent time at the non-profit organization Missionaries of the Poor, where volunteers continually devote their time to caring for physically and mentally handicapped individuals as well as those who have been exiled from their families and communities due to their HIV/AIDS status. I applied lotion to the hands and feet of the residents, and then spent time in the children’s area. Their families have neglected the majority of these children, due to their health status, as many of these children suffer from developmental problems. These experiences allowed me to view the healthcare system and the nursing profession on a global scale and to see the implications the nursing profession has within a society, regardless of ethnicity, religion and social status. When I returned to the United States, I decided to pursue a position as a caregiver at a local nursing home and enrolled for an alternative spring break trip to San José, Costa Rica, to assist in providing care for the disabled and elderly at a nursing home. I assisted the nurses with wound dressings, observed various tube feedings, and helped feed and bathe the residents. The residents all slept on small iron beds in a large, gymnasium-style room. Due to being sedentary for long periods of time and the high prevalence of diabetes, I witnessed several decubitus ulcers and amputated limbs. Due to these unforgettable experiences, I obtained my Certified Nursing Assistant license in order to gain the necessary skills to provide the best quality care to all of the individuals, both current and future, that I would be lucky enough to care for.

Learning in the Trenches

I will not lie and state that being a CNA is the easiest job in the world. When I first began my work as a basic caregiver, I wasn’t mentally prepared for the various bodily fluids I would be dealing with, nor was I physically prepared for the amount of lifting and the thousands of steps I would walk (sometimes jog) across the facility in order to answer a resident’s page in a timely fashion. I was also not prepared for the strong bonds I would form with so many of the residents, now like family, or the overwhelming sadness I would feel when a resident was sent to the hospital, and in the worst case, when they would never return home. Being a CNA is mentally and physically exhausting at times, yet extremely rewarding. I found in the beginning that it was often easy to become wrapped up in the day-to-day events of the same shift, where everything became routine over time and sometimes I would perform these actions robotically, waiting for the clock to strike 2 p.m. to signal shift change. There were often times where I didn’t feel appreciated by both the staff or the residents I was caring for, which made my job seem less valuable. Despite this, it was the reassurance and gratitude from certain staff members, residents, and their families that made me realize how valued my work really was. It was the words from one paralyzed resident who would thank me profusely every night as I helped her get ready for bed. It was the words from my head RN who thanked me for working extra hard after a chaotic day. My work as a CNA has made me realize more and more that the individuals I care for are simply human, just like you and I. Many of them are in tremendous physical and emotional pain, and they may take this pain and anger out on their caregivers. Though it may be difficult at times, one of the main lessons I have taken from my time as a CNA is to stay positive, even when feeling unvalued, and I hope to be a beacon of positivity in the lives of my future patients and their families, as well as among my co-workers.

The Passion to Become a Nurse

Both my international healthcare experience and work as a CNA have made me more passionate about becoming a nurse, and I plan on using the skills and knowledge I will gain within nursing school to make an impact internationally through involvement with various healthcare organizations. The time I have spent assisting the elderly and disabled both at home and abroad have made me even more passionate about providing healthcare to those who do not have easy access to medical services. I have observed how important it is for healthcare professionals to go out of their way to provide care for those in need through my extensive involvement in the Snake River Free Medical Clinic in Lewiston, Idaho, where I have job shadowed and assisted in the pharmacy through filling prescriptions. During my career as a nurse, I want to become a nurse educator and teach courses at similar free clinics, covering topics such as sexually transmitted diseases, nutrition, and reducing risk factors for obesity. My passion for becoming a nurse educator also strengthened following the research and construction of my Honors College thesis, which focused on key strategies to increase compliancy among healthcare workers across the United States towards receiving the annual influenza vaccination. I successfully presented and passed both the oral and written portions of my undergraduate thesis with excellence, and I am very proud of what I was able to accomplish during my undergraduate career.

Using ACLS and PALS Certifications to Save Lives

In the future, both ACLS and PALS certification will be beneficial as I begin my career as a registered nurse. Being equipped with these life-saving skills will allow me to act calmly in emergency situations and allow me to provide the best possible care at a critical time. These skills will assist me both while on shift and off shift, where there is a chance I will find myself immersed in an unexpected emergency setting. I will never forget volunteering at the local hospital emergency room in high school when I experienced one of my first emergency situations. I had been assisting at the emergency room check-in counter when a young woman had rushed her small infant into the room, wailing at the top of her lungs. She had placed her infant, who was noticeably blue in the face, on the table in front of me, screaming at me to do whatever I could to save her baby. Quickly, emergency room staff had rushed into the room and retrieved the infant, who unfortunately did not survive. I remember feeling so helpless and paralyzed as the woman screamed at me to take action. I was obviously not qualified to assist the child, yet I still disliked the feeling of being unprepared. I can confidently say that with future PALS training, I will feel confident and prepared when I am faced with a similar situation in the future.

Upcoming Career Milestones: Where I See Myself in 5, 10, and 15 Years

I am very excited for the upcoming milestones in my nursing career. As a recent college graduate from the Honors College at Washington State University with an undergraduate degree in Microbiology, I am currently pursuing a different career path than the one I had originally intended, which was to become a medical doctor. I now realize that nursing is a career better suited for my skills and personality, and I am excited to pursue a Bachelors of Science in Nursing. I am forever grateful for my CNA instructor, who served as a role model for me and made me more passionate and interested in the field of nursing. I will now be attending the University of Rochester in January of 2018 and participating in the Accelerated Bachelors Program for Non-Nurses. I will graduate in December of 2018 as a Registered Nurse. Following graduation, I plan on securing a nursing job in the Medical-Surgical or Paediatric Oncology units, which are the units I am most passionate about at this time. Despite my current interests, I am excited to begin my nursing program and complete multiple clinical rotations in different areas, so I can fully gauge what my interests really are and find an appropriate job that matches.

Within 5 years, I want to be involved in a Masters or Doctoral program for nursing. I am hoping to find some clarity as to what I want to do while I work as an RN for the first few years following graduation from the University of Rochester. I am currently interested in pursuing a career as a nurse practitioner, certified nurse anaesthetist, or continuing further to achieve my Doctor in Nursing Practice. I believe that pursuing any of these degrees will be extremely rewarding, regardless of what I choose. Within 10 to 15 years, I hope to be fully content with my job and working at a large hospital. In addition to providing direct patient care, I want to be established as a nurse educator. I hope to one day inspire future nursing students as my CNA instructor once inspired me, and I plan on teaching CNA courses. In addition, I want to teach within local free clinics and reach out to populations who cannot easily access or afford sound medical advice and healthcare services. I plan on broadening this education through volunteering with international health organizations and teaching populations in developing countries about their basic healthcare rights and how to prevent common illnesses. My dream has always been to volunteer with Doctors Without Borders, with the Red Cross, or with Mercy Ships.

Conclusion

As a future nurse, I look forward to giving back to those in need, and I am confident that pursuing a degree in nursing will provide me with a lifelong, fulfilling and humbling career.  As an incoming student at the University of Rochester, I am excited and ready to take the next step in my career as a nurse. I am prepared to continue to challenge myself academically with a degree that I am so passionate about, just as I challenged myself while obtaining a Bachelors of Science degree in Microbiology. I am eager to provide care and assistance to all individuals in all corners of the world, regardless of their background and social class, and I will continue to strive daily to put others’ needs before my own in order to provide the best possible care. I am confident that my time working as a CNA has allowed me to truly grasp the full meaning behind being a nurse, and I hope that I can make an impact, large or small, on at least one of my patient’s lives in the near future. Thank you for taking the time to consider me as a candidate for this scholarship.

Author: Amirreza Reihani 

School: The George Washington University, Milken School of Public Health

Area of Study:  Master's of Public Health

My first toys as a child were a plastic ambulance and stethoscope. When I asked my dad why he got me the plastic stethoscope, he told me that he had to get one for me so he could still use his real one for work. I remember my father fondly as a wise, generous, and compassionate man, and his example motivates me in my medical career. He was a renowned surgeon and professor of medicine at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran, and his impact on his patients, colleagues, and students is still felt twenty years after his death. I owe my passion for medicine to my father, who gave me my first opportunity to work in a medical setting when I volunteered at his hospital at the young age of 4. 

Living my entire life in Iran, eventually working for three years as a general practice physician, as a non-Muslim, I learned that being able to relate to people from diverse backgrounds is absolutely imperative. I drew from my father’s example of warmth and generosity in my daily life, and I built lifelong relationships with people who were very different than me. My compassion only grew from these experiences and have made me a passionate humanitarian. The impact my father made on our community convinced me that medical science was the best possible way for me to bring health and hope to those who need them most. Public health, in particular, was always an interest of mine, as I could look around my own community and see the impact that education and preventive care could have. 

I enrolled in university to study health sciences, and I eagerly pursued every available volunteer position that allowed me to help doctors and patients. I knew back then that I wanted a world-class medical education, but I could never have afforded medical school in the United States. Undeterred, I enrolled in a state medical university in Iran while following the textbooks used in American medical schools to ensure that I could perform at the same level of excellence. I even sought out Iranian professors who had worked abroad in order to get every possible insight that I could on modern clinical practice. I loved the rush of constantly learning and studying, and I have maintained the same intellectual intensity and curiosity long after graduation. 

With my goal of practicing in the United States always in mind, I spent my three years as a general practitioner studying everything I could to improve my English and prepare for the USMLE. I devoted hours of study to learning American idioms and speech patterns in order to improve my ability to communicate, eventually achieving a TOEFL score of 102. One of the ways I mastered English was teaching English as a Second Language courses in the underserved communities where I worked. Not content to simply learn English, I also became fluent in French, earning two degrees in French DELF/DALF, A2 and B1. Not only do I love to study languages, but I have come to realize their value in the context of public health. 

After successfully completing my examinations, I moved to the United States to observe clinicians in practice. When observing under neurologists at the highly ranked Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami, I saw just how powerful medicine can be when expertise and technology are combined. I recall one particularly incredible case where a patient was rushed into the emergency room with critical brain injuries be treated and stabilized in under 45 minutes, a feat that would have been completely impossible in an Iranian hospital. But moving to Washington, D.C. showed me an even more shocking truth – that those disparities in care existed even in the United States. Even though this hospital was mere blocks from the White House, conditions for many of the patients looked more like a third world country. Seeing the dramatic differences between hospitals in wealthy and poor areas showed me the urgent need for public health professionals to address these critical issues. 

During my internship in Washington, I had the pleasure of working with physicians who were public health professionals, and their example motivated me to pursue training in public health as I continue to pursue my medical education. Their advice and encouragement has shown me that this degree would give me a greater platform to pursue policy changes that improve preventive care and healthcare access to poor and underserved communities. Working alongside neurologists, I was deeply saddened by the plight of the Alzheimer’s and dementia patients especially who were unable to afford the best available care. I believe that as a public health professional and trained neurologist, I will be able to truly impact the lives of individual patients and underserved communities. I look forward to lending my unique professional and cultural experiences to the diverse group of students who will be joining me in this program.  

By grasping better knowledge in Public Health in addition to my medical school training and post graduate experience in emergency care and internal medicine, I would deem it the utmost honor to further my education in neurology and the serve the public working toward improving patient care in the future.