My Achievements and Study Objectives - Essay Example

Personal Statement Having obtained the highest score on the entrance examination at College of Medicine, Hue University, Vietnam in 1982, I was offered a scholarship to study medicine, which I accepted, at Pirogov Medical College of Odessa, Ukraine, former USSR from 1983 to 1989. After finishing medicine in 1989, I went back to Vietnam, where I joined the staff of An-Giang Cardiovascular Hospital starting 1991. The hospital was a unique government medical facility that is capable of the most proper emergency cardiac care in Mekong Delta. In the first years at the hospital, I made all out effort to improve my clinical skills, focusing mainly on evaluation and management of particular patients in hospital but I had paid much less attention to health care in community or broadly speaking public health service except my participation in a large scale epidemiological survey of hypertension in some counties of An Giang province. My experience in the survey was a rote learning, if I may say so, in the sense that what stays in my memory are some figures and conclusions but not than its design, method and implementation. Later, when I was supposed to see patients in outpatient department I realized that they adhered very poorly to instructions at discharge. I had thought poor adhering instructions caused exacerbation and readmission. Based on collected data for my hospital-based studies, after taking a closer look at medical history of hundreds of my patients, who were admitted mostly due to complications of hypertension such as stroke, acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, heart failure, I discovered the ignorance of patients and their relatives to common CVD risk factors, with some patients not having experienced a blood pressure check. On the other hand, primary care physician gave vague instructions in most cases, and no prevention measures had been taken. In the last 2-3 years, I had the chance to see and visit the manner of emergency cardiac and critical care to many rural county hospitals of my province and I saw with my eyes the poor primary care in a developing country like what Vietnam has now. I quickly found out that and our primary care is obsolete due to various reasons such as financial, personnel equipment deficit, poor coordination between health service and other government organizations. Like any other developing country, we are facing both infectious disease and non-communicable diseases like heart diseases, diabetes, cancer that is predicted to rise substantially in the next 10-20 years. I also recognized the same problems and things as in my hospital practice: unawareness of diseases, difficulties in lifestyle modification, poor adherence to instructions. Other factors include peoples’ unwillingness to turn to official medical help until their conditions are at severe stages, religious beliefs making resorting to prayer instead of asking for official medical help, many bad habits like alcohol, tobacco abuse practiced by many, the bad habit of excessive use of the insecticides and weed-killers on a massive scale resulting in food poisoning, which is the main cause for many lasting critical health problems, and perennial floods, which cause water contamination. In recent years, my interest in community-oriented studies and public health service caused to conduct researches from many relevant references on internet about it. I am now convincing public health has a more important role than I had thought before. Broadly speaking, the mission of public health is to “fulfill society’s interest in assuring conditions in which people can be healthy.” In relation to continuing interest in public health, I got impressed with many well-known programs of US health service designed to promote preventive strategies for hypertension and heart diseases such as NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys), NCEP (National Cholesterol Education Panel), and MRFIT (Multiple Risk Factors Intervention), Framingham Heart Study. As early as 1798, President John Adams signed a bill into law that created what we now know as the U.S. Public Health Service. Since 2002, along with my clinical studies, I have written many articles addressing preventive aspects of heart diseases and promotion of healthy lifestyle that were published in local popular science journal- “An Giang Monthly Health Bulletin.” Here are some of them: Appropriate diet for prevention and treatment of hypertension (2002), Alcohol and health (2003), Exercise and Cardiovascular Health (2004), Warning signs of heart attack (2005). I have presented these topics for patients at my hospital, on my consultation visits to remote counties, all on a charity basis. Despite all these accomplishments, I must admit that my past experience in public health was modest and with my realization of the public health role in health care promotion and socioeconomic development, I am looking forward to learning core competencies of public health in order to bring on more benefit to my community. A turning point of my career came in February 2006 when director of An Giang Health Service appointed me as deputy director of An Giang Cardiovascular Hospital. Along with maintaining hospital proper performance, I have ample opportunities to realize my projects in public health service. My new appointment, I feel, caused me to seriously consider some community-oriented studies, these last few years. These include: (1) identification of factors that interfere with adherence of population to lifestyle modification and to long-term evidence-based treatment of chronic diseases; (2) impact of traditional medicines and religious beliefs on treatments of chronic heart, lung, renal, liver diseases; and (3) impact of polluted water on people’s health in seasonal flooding. Recently, the government of Vietnam built a program for public health promotion of 9 provinces in Mekong Delta funded by favorable loans of World Bank. Feasible projects for some provinces are currently under way and until 2008-2009, it will come to An Giang. After finishing MPH course in the US, where PH schools are well-known all over the world, by that time, I think, I can take part in handling this important program. After that, I am hoping that I can realize my future public health projects. Study Objectives I have begun my medical career in An Giang Cardiovascular Hospital since 1991 after completing medical education from 1983 to 1989 in Pirogov Medical School of Odessa, Ukraine, former USSR. I was in-charge as the deputy chief of emergency and intensive care unit responsible for the acute care of patients with: myocardial infarction, unstable angina, stroke, shock, sepsis, respiratory failure, intoxication. For more than 10 years, I have successfully fulfilled my assignment and in this working environment with my presentation of many hospital-based reports and study papers that are related to my area of specialization and key learnings from my experiences. Last February, 2006, I was promoted to new a position as Deputy Director of An-Giang Hospital. With the position, I have been offered opportunities to demonstrate my management and leadership skills. My current responsibilities include not only clinical issues but also public health issues that deal with primary prevention programs, regular consultations and assistance for rural areas, conducting community-based research, and participation in policy development and program planning. Although I have achieved certain goals in the past as a physician-researcher, I need new competencies of knowledge, understanding of principles, and fundamental skills of public health practices. Having all these, I believe, is necessary for my current and future health care service. Hence, it is now the time for me to set another goal, that is, to earn a Master Degree in Public Health (MPH). Knowledge learned from this MPH, in my view, will really help in the promotion of healthy living awareness and disease prevention in a public program. A good public health program, as the way for the betterment life in a community will encompass a broad array of functions and expertise such as: 1. assessment and monitoring of the health of communities and public health programs; 2. generating public policies, identifying solutions to the local and national health problems, and 3. Evaluating the effectiveness of these programs. Properly performing these functions will ensure that all populations have access to the appropriate and cost-effective cares. In order to be successful in my new position and as will now be supplemented by the knowledge that I will gain in this master’s program, I have to focus on the core competencies recommended by the Council of Linkages between Academia and Public Health Practice for efficient public health professionals to gain essential skills in the following domains: Analytic Assessment, Basic Public Health Sciences, Technical Competency, Communication, Financial Planning and Management, Leadership and Systems Thinking, Policy Development/Program Planning. At this point there is a need to elaborate overall linkages between academic learning of a number of core competencies and their practical application into my current and future endeavor. First --Being a deputy head of hospital, I am responsible for maintaining proper hospital performance including clinical issues, resource and health personnel management along with prevention program. As my hospital is a participating member in the national prevention program of non-communicable diseases (heart diseases, diabetes, cancer…) which are predicted to rise substantially in the next 10-20 years, I should work for the provision as demanded by the situation and facilitate the linkages between my hospital with local health services, county health care centers and government organizations. The training in public health will therefore provide the needed tool to develop leadership and systems thinking skills to ensure that my management will deliver the essential public health services to local people. Gaining this knowledge will greatly help me to be skillful in consulting and collaborative research in my future public health service. That is the reason why Cultural Competency, Communication skills, Cross Cultural Understanding course work are critical in my MPH program. Getting the financial supports and managing the funds are also the key competencies to manage a public health service successfully. Training in Financial Planning and Management skills is needed as my future projects may involve in the financial supports from NGOs, private sector or foreign-aids, as well as investment from the government, where the transparency in financial managing is required Once I have completed my MPH study, I will have a chance to apply my learnings of broad-based, quantitative and qualitative skills for problem solving, to develop multidisciplinary and collaborative strategies for solving health-related problems, and to enhance my communication skills while working with diverse cultural ethnics. As warranted by my position at the hospital, I can carry out my future projects, which include search for new insights, innovative and sustainable solutions to prevention strategies for many chronic diseases, specific environment and work place hazards like water pollution, inappropriate use of pesticides and insecticides. All of these are all geared to bringing a better care to local people. Read More