Serving with Compassionate Context

We were really lucky as National Health Corps members to have a Pre-Service Orientation (PSO). PSO is a time before all members start serving at their host sites to come together, learn about our AmeriCorps service term, and go through some workshops that will give us valuable skills and knowledge that are transferrable to all host sites and that will help prepare us for our term of service. The trainings were not necessarily specific to our individual host site responsibilities, but rather provided context for where we are serving and introduced the skills that will help us have a successful service year. At most entry level jobs new college graduates start in, they are given specific training to what their tasks will be and no further training on being culturally competent to the populations they are working with or broader knowledge of the bigger system in which they are working. NHC members were given the opportunity to explore the topics of public health, the inequalities of access to care that exist, and the diversity of populations we will be serving, before we began training on specific tasks such as insurance enrollment or health education. These different workshops provided a more interdisciplinary orientation into our terms of service with a more holistic look into the people we are serving.

So far as an Insurance Specialist for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health-Ambulatory Health Services, Health Center 10, all of the trainings have proved to be relevant and helpful in completing my service well. We watched a TED talk from Rebecca Onie called “What if our Healthcare System kept us Healthy?” which explained a proposed health care system that considers the whole person including their access to food and basic shelter. This has allowed me to reflect on the state of public health in this nation and navigate the differences between preventative health care vs. sick care. My experience serving so far has helped me see the effects this has had not only on individual patients, but on the system as a whole. I can see first hand from patients the barriers they face to receiving access to care and how having a lack of preventative health care can lead to less desirable health outcomes in the long term. For example, adults who have not had their permanent resident card in the United States for at least five years are not eligible for Medicaid. National Health Corps has provided an opportunity to learn and gain skills within our specific positions as well as the chance to place our service in the context of broader systems that are in place.

Another training that I’ve been able to put into practice at my service site was the training about cultural competency. I never realized how diverse my Host Site was until I was actually there interacting with patients. Interpreters are used more often than not. Not only are there many language barriers, but there are many cultural differences that I have to be aware of. The training about cultural competence allowed me to reflect on my background, the privileges I was born with, and the various ways to connect with people who are different from myself.

The various trainings, along with the opportunity to collaborate with likeminded members as we compared experiences and engaged in critical thinking activities, have allowed for a smooth transition into the service term. Not only did we receive valuable trainings, but we also bonded as a corps through team building exercises. I am very excited to continue this term of service with my fellow NHC members, and to use the skills I have learned in PSO and will continue to learn throughout member meetings to be more effective in my service.
 

This post was written by NHC Philadelphia member Megan Houston.

Megan serves at Philadelphia Department of Public Health-Ambulatory Health Services, Health Center 10 as an Insurance Specialist.