When I was looking for a residency program I wanted to find a program that would
support what I wanted to do in the future.
I wanted the research opportunities, I wanted to be able to give something to the
medical community and write it in publications and expanding the knowledge
that is medicine. I needed a residency program with good
clinical practice that can get me into the kind of fellowship to do exactly what I
want to do in the future. I'm interested in kind of systems
and innovative solutions, most kind of big picture things.
I'm very interested in health system issues and cost of care as innovative
things to reduce ordering of those tests.
Because serving my community is a priority to me I definitely wanted to choose
a program that would allow me to continue my work as a community health advocate.
I knew I wanted to go into primary care from the start and I really wanted a place
that celebrated primary care and promoted academic primary care.
When I got here I was directed towards different faculty members that had an
interest in international health.
One of them is Dr. William Greenough.
He discovered the cure for cholera. Being part of Johns Hopkins is in itself
this phenomenal thing because you have the
most intellectual minds of medicine coming up with the most up to date research
and the most innovative ways of treating, caring for patients.
I think that feeling that you're part of something greater, I think it is that
culture that makes this place strong.
People really come up to me and say "Hey, what about this project?
Hey, I hear you're interested in this." I'm asked that on a daily basis by five
different powerful attending who care about my future.
One of the things that I really liked is that we have a full service hospital with
everything available here but it still has a community hospital feel and within three
to six months I was able to get to know everyone from the President of the
hospital down to the janitorial staff and quickly I had names and faces of people
who could help and were willing to help.
Because we're Hopkins we get the specialty referred in care so you do get the very
interesting cases but you also get the local community which is kind of it's
a little bit earth focused.
And then you get refugees and immigrants from other places who come with all kinds
of things you've never seen before.
This program has allowed me autonomy.
I've been able to get to know my patients very well and also get to know the
surrounding community very well which ultimately has made me a better physician.
Kind of these home visits that the Bayview community talked about during my interview
was the first time I've ever heard of it, something that like sounded good on paper
but doing it it's made me realize "Wow, this is the program that I've always
wanted to be in." The patient felt like family, she felt like part of this larger
bigger picture that Bayview aspires to achieve.
When I first came here I was deciding between primary care and international
health and people kept on telling me it's impossible to combine the two.
Looking back I think that it was almost like a Godsend for me to be here because I
was not only able to find my passion but I found people that supported me along the
way, that allowed things to happen the way they were meant to be.
Many, many of our residents go out to do international work.
We [inaudible 4:03] usually through the School of Public
Health and they go and they do this work and they come back and I think not only
does that resident learn but they bring back that knowledge and really teaches us
a lot.
What I didn't expect is that how much there is to learn from each individual
that you care for and Bayview has really helped me see that.
Part of their motto is that every single patient matters, it doesn't matter if
you've seen the same condition 85 times, it doesn't matter if you've seen this
patient 35 times.
Every individual encounter matters.
They give you individualized attention which allows you to go along whatever path
you choose.
I think we all enter medical school very idealistic, with these high ideals of what
kind of doctor we want to be - compassionate, empathic.
What I think I can honestly say is now I'm starting third year and two years in I
think I might be even more idealistic than I was when I came in.
You walk into this program having an MD but you're going to leave this program
being a doctor. I wish there was a speaker somewhere that
one could shout to the world the power of this program is the culture.
The heart of Bayview will remain in every resident that has trained here.