Mission of the National Health Service - Essay Example

?Mission of the National Health Service Order No. 819913 How will you contribute to the mission of the National Health Service Corps in providing care to underserved communities? Health care has always been a sensitive but much debated issue in the field of medicine which has always intrigued me from my childhood. Having been born and raised in the Bronx, NY, I grew up with a strong desire that I needed to do something worthwhile and noble in my life. The background from where I came involved a bitter struggle to say the least and I understood that if I wanted to make a difference, I needed to do something about it. Therefore, I pursued my studies and soon after High School, I attended Jacksonville University, Florida, from where I procured a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences, with a minor in psychology. My training included an ophthalmology practice specializing in vitreoretinal diseases, neuroopthalmology, cornea, oculoplastics, and glaucoma. I have always nurtured a deep desire to help under privileged communities, especially the Hispanic/Latino community which has the fastest growing population. Helping such communities to raise their standard of living and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a top priority in my working agenda. In the capacity of a health care provider, I feel a deep sense of obligation, not only to provide people with good health care practices but also to make such communities aware of the dangers of poor health conditions. I also feel that it is my duty to educate them in the matters of health so that they do not become victims of life threatening diseases or other co- morbid conditions which may lead them to become a burden on the already fragile healthcare system of the society at large. My passion is to work with the underserved communities right from the grass-root level because it is at this level I understand there are a lot of discrepancies where health care is concerned. Qualitative care seemed to be a far- fetched dream especially for the underserved communities like the Latino community which my parents and I were a part of. As I grew older and understood that there were many yawning gaps in the health care system, I became all the more determined and focused my energies on trying to bridge those gaps by nurturing my desire and honing my skills to become a good physician assistant which is my ultimate goal in life. Insurance coverage or the lack of it seems to play a major role in the distribution of health care. Working for the past 15 years at a private practice gave me deep insight and experiences about what medical insurance was all about. In this particular private practice where I worked, all the patients possessed their own private medical insurance and so the medical expenses for these patients were paid without a hitch. However, I’ve also had the experience of working at medical practices that catered to the low income group people who had very little or no insurance coverage at all. It was then that I understood the disparity in the medical disbursement between the high and low income groups. The time allocated for the physician to spend with patients of different income groups varied. In the low income group category, the physician is allotted two minutes per patient on an average. However, in the capacity of my being a medical assistant, such restraints or constraints do not feature. Hence, I made it my mission to bridge this gap by providing people in the low income group greater access to specialized medical attention and care by preparing before hand a detailed medical history of each patient as well as performing all the pre- diagnostic testing of the patient to enable the doctor to render a much more effective medical aid to his patients within the same two minute framework. Moreover, organizations such as PALH and the AAPA have always encouraged and lent great support to Hispanic/Latino populations through their varied medical or medically related programs, scholarships, sponsorships, awards and educating medical professionals. I am greatly inspired by the work of these organizations and the support and encouragement I received from them and I strongly believe that I too have a deep desire to serve the underserved communities like them. My education has stood me in good stead and I am presently attending the Christian Brothers University’s Masters of Science in Physician Assistant Studies Program and continuing my journey of realizing my goals of bringing better healthcare services to the underserved communities. It had always been my great aspiration to work with the underserved community considering all my own experiences during my most impressionable years. On assessing the needs of my community, I strongly desire to work hard right from the grass-root level and make better the conditions of individuals from low income groups. Within the framework of health care, I would love to pursue my vision of providing good quality of medical care which is not only cost effective but also readily and easily accessible especially for people in an underserved community. In order to make this dream a reality, I hope to stay connected with such like- minded people through networking with them and finding people with the same frame of mind in addition to the necessary skills required to build a network with a high standard in healthcare. I now have a clear understanding of my future role as a physician assistant and the responsibility I have towards the community of the underserved. I believe that all the experiences I have had in the healthcare arena have molded me to be an honest, trustworthy, dedicated and responsible individual with a keen desire to serve the underprivileged part of society. I am aware that the weak point in my application is my GPA in the core science classes due to academic immaturity in the earlier days, but my humble request to you is to take into consideration the progress I have made in my GPA till date and treat my application as a whole. I am wholly confident that your program would serve to hone my knowledge and skills in diagnosing and treatment of different illnesses and it would further help me to reach out and serve the underrepresented community with excellent medical care. Read More