M3.2 - Vulnerable Populations

A quote that really stayed in my head after watching the video was in the beginning when Rishi Manchanda stated that health doesn't begin in the doctor's office, but where we live, work, eat, and sleep. This really resonated with me because I initially thought I wanted to become a Registered Nurse to help people, but learning more and more about Public Health I realized that I wanted to help people by through prevention and education of healthy behaviors (as I try and do in my personal life). I also realized that Public Health has the potential to help people's health at a larger scale (populations) rather than treating patient symptoms.

It's amazing how the Veronica's symptoms improved by 90% when her environment was looked at and addressed. It shows that it doesn't always matter if you give a patient medicine because they could still come back with the same illness or symptoms if their life and environment outside the exam room isn't optimal or considered healthy. People and their doctors/health care providers need to start looking more at what external factors are affecting them rather than thinking the doctors/providers can figure it out and give them some pills that makes them healthier. "One zip code is more important than one's genetic code".

Comments

  1. Angela GSeptember 13, 2018 at 4:19 PM

    Yes! I like what you are saying about public health being able to help populations rather than individual patients. I connect with this and also used to want to be a nurse!

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  2. Rudi HernandezSeptember 16, 2018 at 11:50 AM

    Hey mat!
    I too wanted to be a nurse to help people. I was actually in the LVN program at city college a while back and was assigned a patient with jaundice during my clinical rotations. I looked at the patient and asked, "how can this be prevented?" instead of asking how can I take care of him. That patient changed everything in my education and career goals.

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