{"id":481,"date":"2020-01-23T14:28:46","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/?p=481"},"modified":"2020-01-23T14:28:46","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T14:28:46","slug":"patient-perspective-we-want-to-help-people-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/2020\/01\/23\/patient-perspective-we-want-to-help-people-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Patient Perspective: We Want to Help People Too"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
by Kaitlyn Bridgeforth<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When I ask other students why they became\ninterested in the medical field, the most common sentiment I hear is, \u201cI want\nto help people.\u201d When I dig deeper into their histories, I often hear stories\nof a grandfather with cancer, a mother who was a nurse, or a little sibling\nwith diabetes. It\u2019s true that watching someone you love experience the ins and\nouts of the healthcare system firsthand can be deeply moving. Something within\nus says, \u201cI see you, I hear you, and I want to help you too.\u201d But does this\nstill resonate when the patient is you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to healthcare, I was\nalways the patient first. I was the one being diagnosed, treated, and\naccommodated for. When you\u2019re chronically ill, it is understood that some days\nyou will experience pain, fatigue, and setbacks. Unlike a mild sprain or\ncatching a cold, what we live with is not going to be a temporary thing. With\nthat understanding, I didn\u2019t believe being a healthcare provider was achievable\nfor me. I felt weighed down by stigma that many of us living with chronic\nillnesses face, and we question what is realistically within our reach. In\nhindsight, I think this was partially because I didn\u2019t see people like me on\nthe other side of this equation (at least not that I was aware of). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truth be told, we want to help\npeople too. We want to help people because we thoroughly understand what it\u2019s\nlike to be a patient. We want patients to know that they can still live happily\nand productively, however that may manifest in their lives. We know that the\ndiagnosis of a chronic illness is not the end, but a map to help navigate us on\nour respective journeys. We know we need representation, including in the\nmedical field, where it can feel like our roles have already been laid out for\nus. Deciding to pursue medicine was, by no means, me chasing after a lifelong\ndream. In every way, it was a lifelong dream chasing after me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I\u2019m not going to sugarcoat this though, I was running from it for a reason. It is challenging to go through professional health programs, and it is uniquely challenging to be chronically ill while doing so. If you\u2019re like me, I invite you to remember just a few things when considering this program and a career in healthcare: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Know\nyour rights! Being a student and being someone with a chronic illness are not\nmutually exclusive. You are entitled to reasonable accommodations, and the Office of Academic Access<\/a> at EMU\nis such a helpful resource for you to be able to achieve your academic goals\nwhile caring for your health and wellbeing.<\/li>
  2. Chronic\nillnesses can feel like our baggage. It\u2019s the thing dragging us down, making\nthings heavy, wearing us out. It\u2019s time to unpack that here. This is the place\nwhere you hold the key to some valuable insight. You have an important voice.<\/li>
  3. You\nare inevitably going to be surrounded by people who care. We all want to help\npeople, remember?<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    When I ask other students why they became interested in the medical field, the most common sentiment I hear is, \u201cI want to help people.\u201d When I dig deeper into their histories, I often hear stories of a grandfather with cancer, a mother who was a nurse, or a little sibling with diabetes. It\u2019s true....<\/p>

    Read more about Patient Perspective: We Want to Help People Too<\/span><\/path><\/path><\/svg><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":269,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-m-s-biomedicine","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/269"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":484,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481\/revisions\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/ma-biomedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}