Ever since I was born, I have grown up and watched the struggles of living in an underprivileged community. One of the struggles of living in an underprivileged community is watching people have a difficult time providing for themselves. This is a common sight for people who are just above the poverty line but still do not have enough money to make ends meet. I currently work at a Physician’s Office in Hertford, North Carolina. I have a strong medical background and plan on becoming a Health Care Professional. The problems I’d like to solve in the future are to serve underprivileged communities in the medical field and the employment field and also to help promote healthy lifestyles.
For the past year, I have been working at a medical office where I perform receptionist duties. One of my duties is to check patients out and collect the copayment their insurance company requires. The amount of patients on government assistance or without insurance is devastating. In order to help solve this problem, I plan on offering discounts as well as payment plans and a sliding fee scale. All three of these will be based on the patient’s annual income in order to provide the best discount for the patient. People who are in poverty do not tend
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This makes it more difficult for families to get back on their feet when they’re struggling with employment and economic hardships. I plan on hiring disadvantaged patients to perform simple duties around my office, in order to receive free office visits or a salary. This means that healthcare would be one less bill they would have to worry about. If the patient choses to have a salary, I will put 25% of their salary into a bank account for them. This money would build up over time, and eventually the money would be theirs. By providing these patients with employment opportunities, they will be able to afford healthcare as well as have financial
It is my desire to increase my breadth of knowledge and to serve others in a larger capacity. Following graduation from the nurse practitioner program I would like to be working with a primary care clinic in a rural and underserved area. I have a heart for rural medicine and would love to serve and partner with a community that is in need of primary care providers. My goal would be to encourage patients to take ownership of their health by educating and informing them on healthy lifestyles, diseases, medications, etc. I would also like to help the community become more aware of preventative health. I believe the education of patients goes hand-in-hand with
Imagine the burning shame and crippling self-consciousness you would feel if you had to walk around with one of your front teeth cracked for over a month simply because your parents couldn’t afford to get it treated promptly. Now multiply that intense feeling of embarrassment three-fold, since this happened to a very image-conscious, fourteen-year-old me three days before my first day of high school. As both a minority and as someone who comes from an economically disadvantaged background, I have had experiences that have shaped me to understand the frustration and stigma that is associated with not having the privilege of access to health care simply because of where you live and your financial situation. My experiences have also made me aware of the importance of diversity in
I will contribute to the mission of the Nurse Corps Scholarship program by continuing to provide care to individuals in underserved communities. Medically underserved communities involve racial minorities, offenders and ex-offenders, crime or abuse victims, LGBTQ citizens, people with AIDS, and those that are economically disadvantaged. I was born in the small town of Monroeville, AL. It is a great town but it does not have the best resources when it comes to health care. Most members of this town, including my family, would bypass the hospital there and go to the one in the next town simply because they feel
Such rising health care costs penalize the citizens within our nation in multiple aspects. The first set of individuals that are affected are families and seniors because it affects the amount of money that goes into their pockets, which results in a difficult time balancing food, rent, and the basic necessities for living. Next, small businesses and fortune 500 employers are affected because such increased costs cause rising health care costs to become more expensive to add new employees to their payroll and more difficult to cover retiree fees when that time comes. Finally, the federal, state, and local governments are forced to increase Medicare and Medicaid costs, which results in cutting other priority funding such as public safety and education.
I believe that every citizen deserves good healthcare services regardless of his or her geographical area, income, or race. An underserved community is a community in which people are unable to obtain health care or have limited access to the health care system for different of reasons. These reasons include ethnic background, socioeconomic variables, lower salary in some areas, extreme weather, or other life circumstances that produces an uneven distribution of healthcare resources, including nurses. The individuals in underserved communities lack affordable comprehensive health insurance, have gaps in insurance, or are living in remote areas and unable to access care. Additionally, the lack of basic necessities such as money for food, medications,
Many people of which do not know, or even understand programs, or funds that can assist them in these situations they are in. People not knowing or cannot afford health care is a huge problem especially considering the fact that many Americans are elderly or suffer from acute disease, disabilities, and even mental disorders. Without proper health care many of these Americans will suffer tremendously and their symptoms may develop even worse without proper medication and help. This cannot be given without affordable health care.
One reason health care costs are increasing are due to an increase reliance on the emergency department (ED) where many medical conditions could have been prevented or directed to a low-cost health clinic for care. Not only does this take away human capital for people who have actual medical emergencies, but also wastes hospital resources where many of these visit are billed frequently to Medicare, Medicaid, and low-cost health insurance (Choudhry et al., 2007). This problem can be attributed to people who live under the poverty line that cannot afford healthcare or qualify for Medicare and Medicaid. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012 report, the official poverty rate was at a staggering 15.0 percent, or approximately 46.5 million people are in poverty with an income of less ...
In the United States of America, there are millions of individuals that live with chronic medical problems. In which these conditions require some sort of medical attention at least once a month for revaluation, and possible treatment. Thankfully, for the majority of those individuals with their health insurance covers those costs that essentially would cripple their bank accounts. On the contrary, there are millions of people living in the United States, who are uninsured. Even with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act or as it is known by the public Obama Care, there are still individuals who cannot afford the basic needs of healthcare. Health care should not be looked at as a privilege but a right for everyone regardless of their
...t those people will benefit from socialized healthcare but just because they lack the motivation to sustain employment does not mean they do not deserve medical care. You also have to consider the people that are unable to work. They deserve medical attention of the same sort as anyone else who is employed.
Many people rush through their daily life without contemplating their actions, thereby missing vast opportunities for achievement. They waste valuable time engaging in frivolous matters instead of putting their energies towards more productive and meaningful purposes. In the words of the Dalai Lama: “Life is not about acquiring money and other facilities; it is about dedicating your life to helping others as much as you can.” The immeasurable value of helping others has been engrained in me since childhood. As a result of my own difficult family circumstances, I have become more sensitive, kind and mindful towards others and their own situations. I have developed a passion for helping others, which, in combination with a proclivity towards medicine has lead to my descion to become a Physician Assistant. I want to live a life where I can provide healthcare and aid to anyone who needs.
One of the most prevalent and pervasive social issues in the United States today is the provision of equal access to health care for the impoverished. Far too many people live in conditions of poverty and struggle to find the means by which to meet their basic needs. For those without insurance, access to medical care is often preempted by other necessities. An unexpected medical expense can push this group further into poverty. Those who do have insurance may find themselves underinsured in the event of an emergency and unable to make the necessary co-payments. Alternatively, the insured’s provider may refuse to cover certain conditions. Besides the cost of adequate insurance and the booming cost of medical care, there are other factors that affect equal access to medical care for the impoverished. Among these are race, age, and geographic location. Poverty and the resulting inadequate medical care is a ubiquitous social problem that merits further discussion of the issue’s causes and implications.
Economic disadvantage is closely associated with health disadvantages. Health insurance in the U.S. is typically tied to employment, with employers and employees splitting the cost. Lower the prestige and the lower wages in the job, the less likely the pay will include a health benefits package. Those who do not receive insurance through an eomployer can apply for Medicaid. However, “the working poor are the hardest hit because the restrictive eligibility requirements for Medicaid eliminate them from the program because, although poor, they earn too much money to qualify” (Eitzen and Zinn, 2003, pp. 501). This problem also occurs under Obamacare. Due to this, those in the lower economic class cannot afford physicians, dentists, and hospitals. As a result, high maternal death due to lack of prenatal and postnatal care. Infant mortality was 7.2 deaths per 1,000 in 1997 (Eitzen and Zinn, 2003). All time low for the U.S., however significantly higher than other industrialized
On The Social Construction of Difference article, Johnson says that "privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they've done or failed to do" (17). Today in society, this is a very important factor that shapes most of people's thinking and behavior towards these groups who are considered as "disadvantaged" or "oppressed." These groups are excluded from receiving the same advantages that the dominant groups receive, and these are: the whites, heterosexuals, males, and nondisabled. This leads to a separation and injustice among the privileged and unprivileged groups, which causes one of them to have the
After receiving my bachelor’s degree, I started working with a non-profit organization named ASPIRA where I worked as a youth advisor, with at risk youth. I noticed that their knowledge of health was very minimal and by the time those kids were in their teens it might have been too late. My belief is that health promotion and diseases prevention starts at a young age. My passion is to help minority youth become educated with their health in a way they understand and would be able to maintain for the rest of their
Empowerment can be defined as a meaningful shift in the experiences of power attained through interaction in the social world, and is built through iterative in which a person takes action towards personal meaningful goals; draws community support, skill, knowledge and self efficiency to move towards those goals. When people are empowered, they have greater influence on the way services are delivered politically and socially around them. They also participate fully in such processes. However, empowerment of people requires adequate training for staff and support mechanism for the people to participate. In this essay, emphasis would be placed on the role of Nurses and Midwifes in attending to this all important need for the society.