The Crossroad Volunteer Internship Program
"Our mission is to provide service-based, experiential learning for pre-medical (pre-health) students in the Cincinnati community. This is achieved by partnering with leaders in primary care as a way to empower students to be changemakers in their own community through solidarity with the poor.
- Build relationships with patients and the community
- Support and learn from primary care providers through hands-on interactions
- Be proactive and engaged in providing accessible health care to a diverse patient population
- Innovate new ways in which volunteers can participate in improving the delivery of care
- Have a permanent and lasting effect on patient care and pre-medical education in our community
- Guide the next generation of healthcare professionals by providing an immersive and formative experience in primary care medicine". - Crossroad Health Center
What?
The Crossroad Volunteer Internship Program is a three semester internship at the Crossroad Community Health Center in the Over the Rhine Community in downtown Cincinnati. Each semester every intern volunteers for a minimum of four hours a week. During the first semester I shadowed Dr. Borchers, a primary pediatric practitioner and tracked patient referrals. During the second semester I worked in the Pre-Visit Planning room, and during the final semester I assisted in inbox tasks and a variety of projects assigned by the staff. Every month all the interns met to share experiences, learn about issues surrounding community health, and to develop our capstone project. My intern class began the development of Baby and Me classes for the clinic.
So What?
My experience at the clinic has been an incredibly transformative experience. I saw first-hand that social determinants of health must be addressed in order to provide holistic healthcare. I began to understand the complex web that is federally based funding and how that affects the way federally qualified health centers are run. I also began to see how language is most powerful tool that can be used to break down barriers of power and privilege between patients and the provider.
Now What
In the future I will apply this experience to my personal practice. I understand that if I am dedicated to providing health care for the poor than I must be willing to sacrifice many comforts that doctors have grown accustom to. I also understand that providing care means thinking about the intersectionality of the patient’s experiences and how their past and their future affect their present medical state. This experience has given me a passion to continue to learn from experiences like these in medical fields beyond primary care.
Artifact
The most influential part of this experience, was the way that it has shaped my use of language. I was able to share this with growth through an essay I wrote about the use of language to break down systems of power and privilege.
Language Inluence | |
File Size: | 29 kb |
File Type: | docx |