Personal Philosophy Essay

As a pre-medicine student, taking the course: Poverty, Soc Just & Global Health (ASB 410) effected my personal philosophy, my long-term goals, my understanding of how I am privileged, and lastly, possible doubts of my personal philosophy. Prior to being in this course, my personal philosophy mainly consisted of leaving a positive mark on society. Now, my approach to doing this was through medicine. The idea was that I cannot change the world all at once, but rather, with the interactions I have with patients, I can change people’s lives one at a time. This personal philosophy stems from a personal experience. For example, in high school, I learned a lot about the history of the world (the bad made the most impact on me) and current world

To explain, in the book, Mama Might Be Better Off Dead: The Failure of Health Care in Urban America by Laurie Abraham, I was exposed to another type of people in need, those who do not have the luxury of getting the medical support. For instance, the economic situation the Jackson’s family was placed in. Not only was Mrs. Jackson experiencing the pain of post-amputation, Jackie Banes, Mrs. Jackson’s granddaughter, had to provide certain necessities for Mrs. Jackson with a very limited budget. Medicare, alone, was not sufficient enough to fully fund the needs of Mrs. Jackson. This reality of the struggle between income and survival impacted my personal philosophy. To clarify, prior to learning about this concept, my scope of which patient I can help was narrowed to those who can afford the help needed. Nevertheless, after thinking about it through another lens, my personal philosophy broadened to those who need help and cannot afford that help. Though, I want to take a different approach to working at a hospital, such as Mount Sinai. That is because I understand, from the view point of the doctors given in the book, that working in a underfunded hospital can be challenging. For one, my income would be lower than Doctors working at another hospital. With the less pay, I also would be required to put more effort than most other Doctors. Hence, I know that isn’t the route