2018 AMRI Scholarship Program by Stacy Slater
Author: Stacy Slater
School: University of Houston at Sugar Land
Area of Study: Second Degree BSN (Accelerated)
Introduction
The field of healthcare remains the most imperative sectors in our society, given the fragility and longevity of life here on earth. It is precious and quite short, and the depravity of life-care specialists calls on this next generation to dive deep and adopt the life of healthcare practitioners. I’ve been called to serve this generation, not only, but those before me and those following, as I’ve dreamed to partake in multi-generational care for years to come. I aspire to become a Registered Nurse, a compassionate caregiver, a loving companion, a trusted co-worker, and a saving grace to spirits, bodies, and minds in a healthcare setting. It is important to me that I tend to patients with empathic and wise attention while also exceeding the expectation of what being a nurse entails. I aspire to heal, to hope in, and to help the hurting and their loved ones.
Making the Leap from Science Nerd to Healthcare Enthusiast
This position allowed me to work in tandem with healthcare professionals, as well as hospital management and sterilization/decontamination units. What an experience it was, to say the very least. Watching with my own two eyes I witnessed a diagnostic laparoscopy/endometriosis resection that allowed a pregnancy to become viable. I watched as this miracle of healthcare made dreams come true and changed the lives of those suffering. I fell in love with the idea of taking care of patients and knew from then on I belonged in healthcare.
Persevering Through Personal Adversity
Then, a drastic change came along. I have suffered from deep depression and anxiety this past year and a half. It resulted from PTSD, following a traumatic experience that occurred in college as I worked towards my undergraduate degree. I struggled with my place in this world, regretted the decisions that led up to and followed that traumatic experience, then neglected all that I was brought up to be to the present. I feared the life I was living was sending me into the same “ditch” I found myself in that led to total destruction. I was flaccid and pained. This personal season was when I learned my physical body was not the only “instrument” of disease. I realized it was important to also focus on my mental health.
I decided to face my fears and work diligently through hours of therapy, devoting time to mindfulness and meditation, while sparing minutes to continue to keep pushing through the mud and muck of truth, lies, and perspective. It wasn’t until I committed 150+ hours in my therapist’s office that I began to regain fluid thought streams and liveliness, and see my emotions reemerge over the course of my day. It was painful, it was gruesome, but through the power of prayer, and countless hours of focusing and preparing for transformation and ultimate deliverance, I am resurfacing. I am regaining my self-worth, confidence, and passion for life and for love. Not only was this process difficult for me, but for my family, as well. They had to endure days of silence, tears, and backlashing.
...and Hurricane Harvey
During my journey toward recovery, Hurricane Harvey pressed on towards the Gulf Coast, sending Houston, Texas into panic. This deadly hurricane rummaged through the fourth largest city in the United States and not only did it affect the millions of people in the area, it affected my world and my closest loved ones. I would have never guessed that I’d be affected the way that I was, and it ignited in me a strong desire to turn my attention to others who were in dire need. There was transformation that was taking place in my heart as I watched millions of people lose goods, homes, loved ones, and some even losing their lives. Houston's natural "breakdown" trumped my personal "breakdown’’. It was one of the first times I felt alive, affected, and moved to be more than a body and brains. I found rebirth and renewal, ironically in the midst of local devastation.
I joined in with Woodlands Church, a workforce in community and global missions and service, to provide the time and energy I had, apart from therapy and personal reconstruction, in order to save those hurting elsewhere. We went hand-in-hand to multiple homes in the northern and northeast parts of the city. We were baffled and shocked at the destruction of Harvey - to the point of tears on most occasions. We turned our dropped jaws into working hands and feet as we raced against time, demolishing homes and, in turn, memories and mementos of the homeowners' most prized possession: the hearth. Those affected hurt as they watched their homes become nothing but cement and wood. We hurt as they watched, but we pressed on in the wake of their losses.
In the middle of this heartbreak, I found revival. Revival within homes and within hearts - even after heartbreak. It allowed me to reflect again on where I was on my personal journey, and this turn of events, that struck even people that I love, brought about a new perspective and a new belonging to my purpose. My purpose is to bring healing and hope to others. I want my practice as a registered nurse to help those who are hurt, at a loss, and affected traumatically. I also want to bring comfort to their loved ones. My journey through mental strife happened for one very good reason: rediscovery of my mental strength for the strength of others.
Using ACLS Skills to Heal Patients Around the World
With the development of ACLS skills, I will have the ability to serve the community in a way I haven’t yet before. I will begin schooling in January of 2018 and will conclude my studies in December. I have the benefit of accelerating my school work in order to begin practicing as a Registered Nurse. I am delighted to have the opportunity to join a nursing family that spans worldwide, and to be optimistic, I’d hope to encounter peers who share the same interest in practicing globally.
I have a very passionate heart for travel and exploration. My father is a commercial airline pilot and my brother, a pilot at the age of twenty years old; my love for exploring and exhilaration runs in the family. I want to embark on an adventure throughout parts of the world that struggle fiscally, socially, and are the focal points of health precautions. We, the citizens of the United States, are extremely gifted in opportunity to seek out health practitioners when health precautions arise. We live stably, justly, and our resources are vast. Other parts of the world cannot say the same, and I live knowing I have the ability to help with my own two hands and feet.
A Bright Future in Nursing
In five years, I hope to have years of nursing experience in Acute Care and MedSurg. I want to grow into Trusted Co-worker, Established Professional, and Dependable Resource for patients and peers alike. I, however, will take advantage of the first years to absorb highly sought after experiences to ensure a proactive and fulfilling few years as a Registered Nurse.
In 10 years, I want to deliver my heart and hope to the world. As easy as it is to put this to paper, I would be naive to think it will be an easy feat. I see myself reaching new heights and making other countries my home as means of providing the best patient care to those who don’t have the availability of professional healthcare specialists. I believe my work in nursing will be used predominately in missions work because there cannot be enough nurses to serve the ill and weary. This past year and a half has given me a new perspective on mental health, and it will continue to show me how to utilize the skills I’ve been accustomed to throughout this personal rollercoaster.
In 15 years, I pray to have impacted thousands of lives as my journey towards a healthier world gains momentum and flourishes. Because I foresee great growth in my field, I want to consider more schooling in efforts to drive the healthcare field to becoming even more advanced and effective for a world that is changing drastically. Nurse Education or Nurse Anesthesia are both options, but I am also keeping an open mind. While turning my attention back to the academic playground, I plan on gaining more skills to proactively help manage, deliver, and promise exemplary patient care. I have always loved learning, even in the simplest of ways (that being another reason why I have found a future in nursing). In fifteen years, I hope to portray to my loved ones, my neighbors, my community, and my country what nursing means to me and why I do what I love.
This journey I am about to embark on is going to change my life. After committing this past year to other life change, I have never felt more aggressive in my plan of action. I want to serve the community in the best way possible. I want to establish accessible healthcare and administer care around the world. I want to believe in the beauty of a profession and continue my education in efforts of better understanding in the field and a better focus on the future of nursing. It is this group of people that truly make the biggest different in the world. No hurricane can permanently shatter the hearts and minds of a city. No power can isolate the pain from the purpose. No disease can expel the truest character from any single individual. There are trials and torments taking place at every corner. It is Now to act, to influence, to heal, to bridge, and to believe in the beauty of all dreams. That is what it’s taken to land me at a profession that I can call my home - no matter where I am in the world. I am privileged to have the ability to take these next steps in order to have an impact on physically distressed, mentally distressed or, simply, hurting people. My name is Stacy Slater, and I have the power to strengthen what is within me and what is around me. I have found nursing as my home!
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.