Collaboration & Diversity in Healthcare Scholarship

The phone blares, getting calls from rooms 334, 342, and 345 simultaneously. It’s my first day at Sentara, a medical center in Northern Virginia, and I’m immediately thrown into the fast-paced environment. This is the moment when I first realized how important collaboration is within the healthcare field. Anytime a patient needed food, I made sure to check with their nurse to ensure it didn't violate any necessary dietary restrictions. I collaborated with the nurses on providing quality patient care by responding to patient calls on time, organizing surgical bags, etc. Outside of my own experiences, healthcare relies on teamwork. The physician, nurse, healthcare manager, and more all work together to create an effective care plan for each patient. Without this collaboration, the healthcare experience wouldn't be as well-rounded for the patient since fewer perspectives are involved. As a physician, I plan to apply collaboration through open discussion with my co-workers. I hope to create an environment where everyone's ideas are heard and acknowledged. Diversity is another vital part of medicine. In 2022, I started working at a medical center with a majority Ethiopian staff. In addition to taking vital signs, I used my Amharic skills to communicate with patients. I cared for an older Ethiopian woman who was delighted to see we could communicate in her native language. I comforted her and discussed the required blood tests in a way she could fully understand. In the future, I hope to help my community with quality care in a way they can understand. I've also noticed the lack of female representation among physicians. In Sentara, a medical center in Northern Virginia, most of the nurses I work alongside were women, but I’ve only seen one female doctor in my year of volunteering there. My pediatrician is a black woman, so I know from firsthand experience the importance of representation. With her as a doctor, I have the peace of mind that she can understand all the layers of my identity. I hope to be that representation for a young girl like me. Outside of healthcare experiences, I have collaborated a lot through Science Olympiad, a science-based competition. My 2021-2022 season was incredibly rewarding. My partners and I had prepared endlessly for months. I competed in events like Codebusters, encrypting and decrypting ciphers. Studying for these events consumed much of my and my partners' time. We had to work around each other's schedules. This experience was incredibly rewarding because I could bond with people I had grown close to through all the hours spent studying. Two weeks after the state competition, our entire team entered a zoom call where Science Olympiad announces awards. Crossing my fingers, I hear the speaker say, “Fifth place medal to South County HS.” My partners and I jumped up in excitement, overcome with joy. Without our collaboration and communication, we wouldn't have suceeded.