Health & Medical Humanities Concepts

The Health and Medical Humanities minor has given me a distinctive lens into matters pertaining to medicine and healthcare. My major is very focused on the business and administrative side of healthcare, but this minor has engaged me in humanistic and cultural studies of health/illness and how it intersects with literature, art, and the social sciences. I have taken classes in Anthropology, African Studies, and Philosophy that all focus on the health and healthcare disparities affecting different communities using different methods of analysis. Perhaps most importantly, these classes taught me that health/ healthcare isn't just something that we can study from a biological standpoint. Rather, it is also a social phenomenon that is informed by people's lived experiences, which means that we should study it from a holistic viewpoint. It's important to care for someone's mind, emotions, and spirit just like we care for their body to heal them from whatever prognosis they face using a "whole-body" approach. In the class Introduction to Health and Medical Humanities: Alternative Ways of Knowing the Body, I learned how to care for ourselves and others holistically. Through this method, we are able to use a humanistic frame of reference to understand health and healthcare. We learned concepts through the Ways of Knowing: Holistic, Contemplative, Embodied, Ethical, Critical, Social Justice, Empathetic, Aesthetic, Poetic, Narrative, and Relational. These Ways of Knowing shed light on the embodied human experience which includes suffering, healing, well-being, and flourishing. Below I have included some assignments from the Intro class and additional coursework for the minor that reflect my expanded understanding of medicine and healthcare.

Health Systems Management

With my major in Health Systems Management, I have learned so much about the structure and knowledge needed to have a successful health care service. As well as different disparities that affect patients including what can potentially affect the physicians and all the employees that can make a health business run. The five main HSMT Competencies that my major focused on are Communication, Leadership, Professionalism, Knowledge of the Healthcare Environment, and Business Skills and Knowledge. Below are examples of each of these competencies.

Public Health

When I started taking classes for my minor in Public Health, I began to get a clearer picture about whom I wanted to provide healthcare resources and services. I even explored the possibility of going into non-profit organizations to help get more exposure to communities here in the U.S. and other countries to become better attuned to their unique healthcare needs and interests. I learned about a lot of different issues around the globe in my Global Health class, including gender bias in healthcare settings, the unique experiences of immigrants, and even the politics of water use. In my epidemiology class, I came to have a better understanding of how diseases function. Public health moves beyond this narrow focus and considers the interplay between the health of an individual and the wider health of a community. Looking at the disparities and threats to a community's health and well as current policies, we can determine what we need to do to change and bring about better outcomes. Public health is a community effort and isn't something that can be done without the help of everyone involved.

Career Objectives

I continue to be inspired by my major and minors and constantly make connections between them. As someone who works in a healthcare setting, I want to provide the best possible care for my patients. To do so, I must additionally produce the best possible work environment for my employees to make sure they have the resources available to provide the best care that they can provide. Ultimately, I see work as an opportunity to connect with others and make positive changes in my community. I want to be someone in my community that sees people as people, more than just another name in a chart. I want to continue to learn about what is making people in my community unhealthy, and what can I do to change that. Also, with my newest minor in Health and Medical Humanities, I have gained new ways of knowing to have a better understanding of illness from different perspectives.

I am currently working at CSL Plasma as a receptionist technician. Over the past one month and a half, I have learned how to take someone's vitals, check their hematocrit and protein levels, and have gotten some insight into what it's like working as a manager or quality specialist in a healthcare setting. All the things I've learned throughout my major I am experiencing in real-time. I understand that different roles, policies, and morale of a work environment can affect the employees. Even as a new employee, I have thought about what I would do differently if I was in a management role. However, I think a big part of why I'm looking at how I can improve my work environment is because of my minors. From a public health viewpoint, I am witnessing what my patients need to make them suitable donors and explain to them that everything we check is for their well-being. Secondly, with my Health and Medical Humanities minor, I want to connect with them more holistically. With my regular donors, I want to form connections with them and learn about their lives. I can better know my community and outside factors that can be affecting their health. I want to be in a management position where I can uplift my employees and make them feel appreciated for everything they do because we ask a lot from them.

At this point in my career, I am gaining experience, and that exactly where I want to be. I am learning from my own mistakes and listening to others, including my managers and patients. I hope to use all this hands-on learning to move up in the company because I truly enjoy it and want to make a difference in my community.