When I was a sophomore in college, I participated in a summer internship called the Premedical Urban Leadership Summer Enrichment (PULSE) program at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. THe program provided academic, clinical, research, and service learning opportunities with a focus on urban health needs. We spent the summer in Camden, NJ- a city located directly across the Delaware River from South Philadelphia. Camden has an overwhelmingly negative reputation due to high rates of drug use, gang violence, poverty, and homelessness. Through this internship, I was able to provide free health screenings for children and also volunteered at the local Family Success Center where we promoted healthy eating habits and the importance of daily exercise. This was my first exposure to community health, and I really enjoyed being in a position to disseminate knowledge to kids and adults who due to social circumstances may not routinely see a physician.
As a second-year medical student I worked on a similar initiative with 3 of my peers. This program, “5-2-1-0 Healthy Kids!” was designed as a simple way to instill healthy eating and exercise habits in young children in order to combat childhood obesity. The numbers 5-2-1-0 stand for the daily servings of fruits/vegetables, limit of hours that should be spent looking at a “screen”, minimum number of hours of physical activity, and amount of sugary drinks that should be consumed, respectively. Overall, the reception of our program with children and families was very positive and we obtained promising results, which we presented at our school’s Annual Community Health Education Poster Symposium in January, 2018 (see poster below!).
In addition to working with children and their parents in the above endeavors, I also worked as a health coach and continue to promote health with every patient I encounter in a clinical setting. I understand that people obtain information about healthy lifestyles from a variety of sources; but I also understand that it’s our role as physicians to present our patients with evidence-based suggestions that have been proved to decrease mortality from heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and other sequelae of obesity. For example, I never miss an opportunity to reiterate the importance of smoking cessation and limiting alcohol use. Furthermore, I’ve learned to ask pointed questions such as “do you feel safe at home?” and “are you having any trouble affording these medications?” because I realize that circumstances such as violence in the home or poverty are major barriers to optimization of one’s health. It’s my ascertainment that most people want to be healthy. As a physician, it’s my responsibility to work in conjunction with social workers, patient advocates, nutritionists, diabetes educators, and possibly even law enforcement, in order to eliminate any barriers preventing patients from being as healthy as they can be.