I have seen many health issues around me in my community but the one that stands out the most to me has been mental health. I’ve seen it in strangers, seen it in students, my friends, and in my family. It is one of the biggest issues, I feel, that has been a problem, not just in my community, but in the world for a long time. In school, I have seen it claim lives, not just physically, but mentally as well. People go from 100% giving it their all, to a generous 10%. You see their grades drop, but also the smile on their face looks more tired each day. As students, and especially as influenceable children, it has been normalized not to get a good amount of sleep, not to eat nutritious foods, to have social media; all a formula and symptoms of negative mental health. However, my closest experience with mental health, was, unfortunately, found in my family. Growing up, you can see when someone is hurt physically, but as a young child I never noticed how mentally hurt my grandfather was. He was a good person, always a little off, but he treated people well. When I was little, and we all lived in the small town of Eatonville, WA, he would pick me up every day after school. Once a month, or maybe three, we would get a donut, and go home to watch a random show. Now, those are my most treasured memories. Up until three years ago, I had always thought that he was simply like everyone that had a heathy mindset of life, and its gifts. That his little outbursts here and there, were simply to rant. That the verbal harassment he took from his partner, was simply her nagging, and was reciprocated by him every once and a while. That’s what everybody in my family thought. But now its been realized, that our passive behavior may have inadvertently, instead of “not interfering with others business”, was what lead up to my only grandfather giving up on his life, multiple times. Fortunately none of them were successful but I know it could have been the same story with a different ending. I feel that if my family had known the signs, amongst other things, then my grandpa could have gotten the help and resources he needed to recover and live the rest of his life in peace, instead of the pain he is in now. I feel so many things, and think about what I could have done. But at the end of the day, it is never going to be my fault, his fault, my families fault, or anyone’s for that matter. At the end of the day, support is the biggest things someone could have when struggling with mental health. It could be cooking or baking for them. It could be a sincere letter or text. It could be an I love you or a hug. What I believe, is that prevention can be anything one can provide in someone’s life.

As a nurse, or nurse to-be, one of the most important concepts is to represent and stand for our patients; In this case the underrepresented as well as the misrepresented. There are many patients that a nurse comes across per day, per week, going as far as their career. At some point in time, there will a patient that cannot stand up for what they want. There may be a situation or phonomenon in occurence due to environmental injustices as well as social injustices, While I cannot change the intrinsic values of medicine, whether it stands on the "good' or “bad'" side, I can introduce solutions to my community, and eventually hundreds, perhaps even thousands. First of many is to address the roots of the problems. In the long history of medicine, there has not been discoveries without inequality or trauma. When working towards the goal of equality in healthcare, it is a must that these struggles are not only addressed, but estranged from the future of medicine. A person in which I believe understood this well is Lillian Wald, who believed in the fact nurses could not simply take care of sick people, but treat social of economic issues at well. She and Mary Brewster created the role of public health nursing, providing not only many jobs in the community, but later on servicing underprivileged people through the Henry’ St. Nurses settlement, in which patients were given bedside care. This kind of innovation, as well as the simple want to change the disparities in the healthcare field, is what I want to exhibit as a nurse. It is also, what I want my patients to feel and understand. When my one and only grandfather was diagnosed with various types of ailments, both mental and physical, he could no longer advocate, fully for himself. Therefore, my family did so for him. But even then, after mountains of papers and government funding, we were still unable to provide him with the proper care he needed with his conditions. So, I decided my goal as a nurse was to prevent that from happening in my own community, and to provide, and support, more accessible healthcare around the world. I will advocate for my city, through various different local programs. I will continue to learn about the problems many people face due to environmental and social justice, such as redlining or air quality concerns. I will allow my patients to understand and decide on a conclusion they want concerning their life and medical care. I will emphasize choice my patients, while using my knowledge and training, to support them in their decisions. That is how I will protect and incorporate these justices in my work.