Children's Hospital Medical Center

Caroline Hensley, Summer 2017

This internship perfectly complemented my previous experiences working in underserved communities in Cincinnati. My internship provided me a diverse picture of what a career focused on community health in academic medicine might look like — seeing patients in clinic, participating in quality improvement work-groups, developing and sustaining partnerships in the community, studying trends in health outcomes, determining efficacy of interventions, and teaching wide varieties of trainees — all with the lens of advocating for the underserved pediatric populations in Cincinnati.

Two projects of particular interest were related to examining the role of a community liaison in the pediatric primary care setting and analyzing medication fill-rates across ZIP codes in the Greater Cincinnati area. With both these projects I was able to engage with patients, faculty, healthcare professionals, and community members to examine how we can be serving our community better. Ultimately, my summer experiences highlighted the ways that I may be able to use my power and privilege as a physician to improve the health of vulnerable populations.