Origins of My Internship
at Oasis of Hope Free Medical Clinic
As a sophomore student at Grand Valley State University, I sat in on a Pre-Physician Assistant Club meeting about health care experience, and the guest speaker was Barb Grinwis, PA-C and founder of a free health clinic on the northwest side of Grand Rapids, Michigan. You see, I had entered post-secondary education intent on becoming a Physician Assistant (PA), but honestly, I had no idea what it was going to take to become one. So these meetings were good for me. The club has student leaders with a primary goal of inspiring and educating their members on what it takes to claim a highly coveted seat within a PA program. The education was almost always there: I learned that I needed great grades, GRE scores, volunteer experience, and health care experience, but the inspiration? Ehh...
My life became a seemingly endless grind to claim one of those seats, and with every meeting I learned about a new mountain of accomplishments I had to conquer before I even became a contender. The moments when those mountains seem too high to climb are generally the same moments you stop to ask yourself, "why?".
Most health care professionals have a "why?" story that begins relatively the same. Most stories contain a variation of, "I want to help people", but what drives us to take a psychologically grueling and time consuming educational path over, say, working at a soup kitchen? Google "med school application personal statements" and you'll learn really fast: inspiration.
So on that day when the "health care experience mountain" left me asking why, Barb Grinwis began to speak. Honestly, I do not even remember what she said, but she inspired me. It wasn't that her words were impressively eloquent, or that her presentation was polished. Nope. What inspired me was that she had passion: passion for people, passion for altruism, the passion that all health care workers have when they decide to enter the field, the passion that I wanted to daily display once I became a practitioner myself. So I signed up to volunteer at Barb's free clinic, Oasis of Hope, in October of 2014.
In addition to the inspiration, I also began volunteering because I am aware of the need for health care access for individuals who are not eligible or cannot afford health insurance. My own mother and grandmother fall into that category, and a place like Oasis of Hope has the ability to provide incalculable blessings to these individuals.
That may be the understatement of the year; it is not uncommon to see a patient become as ecstatic as a toddler on Christmas morning after simply receiving some free (or low cost) high blood pressure medication. The patient population generally makes it easy to volunteer your time with a smile on your face.
So when I was thinking about where to intern at, Oasis of Hope was at the top of my list.
As a future healthcare provider, I am constantly made aware of the extreme healthcare shortage throughout rural America, where the ability to be creative and innovative with limited resources in health care is important. So I thought, "what better place could one ask for to learn about being innovative with limited resources than at than a free clinic like Oasis?" Many of the patients at Oasis cannot afford the latest and greatest medications and tests that come with a high price, and most can’t afford to take time off from work to help their bodies properly recover. That makes providing textbook medical advice and treatment close to impossible, but the selfless providers at Oasis always find a way to provide the greatest amount of benefit to their patients as possible. My plan is to pick up on a few of their tips and tricks throughout my time here.
"Tips and tricks" aren't all I plan to pick up on; from health administration to clinical care to advice for personal growth, I am positive that this OASIS of OPPORTUNITY will benefit me as a person and clinician as I move forward...
My life became a seemingly endless grind to claim one of those seats, and with every meeting I learned about a new mountain of accomplishments I had to conquer before I even became a contender. The moments when those mountains seem too high to climb are generally the same moments you stop to ask yourself, "why?".
Most health care professionals have a "why?" story that begins relatively the same. Most stories contain a variation of, "I want to help people", but what drives us to take a psychologically grueling and time consuming educational path over, say, working at a soup kitchen? Google "med school application personal statements" and you'll learn really fast: inspiration.
So on that day when the "health care experience mountain" left me asking why, Barb Grinwis began to speak. Honestly, I do not even remember what she said, but she inspired me. It wasn't that her words were impressively eloquent, or that her presentation was polished. Nope. What inspired me was that she had passion: passion for people, passion for altruism, the passion that all health care workers have when they decide to enter the field, the passion that I wanted to daily display once I became a practitioner myself. So I signed up to volunteer at Barb's free clinic, Oasis of Hope, in October of 2014.
In addition to the inspiration, I also began volunteering because I am aware of the need for health care access for individuals who are not eligible or cannot afford health insurance. My own mother and grandmother fall into that category, and a place like Oasis of Hope has the ability to provide incalculable blessings to these individuals.
That may be the understatement of the year; it is not uncommon to see a patient become as ecstatic as a toddler on Christmas morning after simply receiving some free (or low cost) high blood pressure medication. The patient population generally makes it easy to volunteer your time with a smile on your face.
So when I was thinking about where to intern at, Oasis of Hope was at the top of my list.
As a future healthcare provider, I am constantly made aware of the extreme healthcare shortage throughout rural America, where the ability to be creative and innovative with limited resources in health care is important. So I thought, "what better place could one ask for to learn about being innovative with limited resources than at than a free clinic like Oasis?" Many of the patients at Oasis cannot afford the latest and greatest medications and tests that come with a high price, and most can’t afford to take time off from work to help their bodies properly recover. That makes providing textbook medical advice and treatment close to impossible, but the selfless providers at Oasis always find a way to provide the greatest amount of benefit to their patients as possible. My plan is to pick up on a few of their tips and tricks throughout my time here.
"Tips and tricks" aren't all I plan to pick up on; from health administration to clinical care to advice for personal growth, I am positive that this OASIS of OPPORTUNITY will benefit me as a person and clinician as I move forward...