Personal Experiences: A Catalyst for Improving Healthcare

Everyone is unique, each person contributes each one of their own ideas into society. People go through experiences that make them decide what career they want to pursue. I went through a life changing experience that changed where I was heading in my life. Additionally, this first semester of college has increased my awareness of health issues and how bridging cultures is way to minimize mistakes in the health care field. In The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down includes mistakes that could have been prevented. The past experiences that I have been through, my values, and my heritage can improve the practice of health care delivery in America. It was just another day of high school soccer practice during the spring break on a sunny April

With Lia it was good to do a little medicine and a little neeb, but not too much medicine because the medicine cuts the neeb’s effect” (Nao Kao 100).

Since the doctors did not know about the neeb, (healing spirit that the Hmong culture believes in) they never could have delivered their best care because Nao Kao and Foua would not cooperate and agree to give Lia her medicine as instructed. Hopefully, this situation can be prevented by educating potential health care students about cultures and the way they can affect the outcome of a

My experience of being an injured athlete will allow me to better understand what an athlete goes through as I try to help them recover in my future career. It was really tough seeing the team play without me. However, it is important to consider the views of an athlete and as a health professional. I very much value the safety of every athlete, there will be some situations where I could be pressured from coaches and even the athlete himself/herself to let them play in an important sports match. My heritage has allowed me to learn Spanish, because I speak it daily with family members. It will allow for more trust between me and Spanish speaking athletes. A lot of athletes come from different cultures, experiences, and countries come to play on college or professional sports teams. This will allow for a better adjustment for foreign athletes and overall safety of any athlete. In my LEAP team’s presentation, language barriers was a factor in limiting physical activity in children. If hospitals and other health care institutions had more people that are linguistically and culturally competent providers. It would put the patient a little bit more at ease, if they can actually communicate with someone who understands their language. In the book, the Hmong liked Roger Fife who was a doctor because he followed the Hmong families’ requests and let them decide what