Children's Hospital Medical Center

Ronay Thomas, Summer 2019

Over the course of my summer internship, I had a number of great experiences working both in the community and in clinic. I started by sitting in on meetings with community partners in some of Cincinnati's most disadvantaged neighborhoods including MORTAR in OTR, Caring Families in Avondale, and Rising strong in Price Hill. I was also able to spend time shadowing in the Pediatric Primary Care Clinic which offered not only a great experience interacting with patients and families, but also a closer look at all of the resources offered to families to address the many social barriers to healthcare that they faced. In clinic, a multidisciplinary team of social workers, community health workers, Legal Aid, and other support staff worked tirelessly to ensure that each patient's needs were met before, during and after their appointments. Families received food from the in-house food pantry, information on jobs and summer programs, as well a guidance on how to obtain adequate housing and public benefits including health insurance. I was amazed at how many non-medical factors could influence each patient's experience and healthcare outcomes. I was even more ecstatic, to see that Cincinnati Children's was playing such an active role in mediating these health needs. Seeing patient's faces light up with gratitude when social work entered the room to help with school difficulties, or when families received the additional food that they needed was an awe-inspiring experience that I will surely never forget.

Toward the end of my internship, I was able to turn my earlier experiences with the multi-disciplinary healthcare team into two research projects. I was given the opportunity to help write a manuscript on the community health worker program at Cincinnati Children's with the goal of spreading this framework to other clinics. Throughout the process, I became more familiar with the needs of the community and how community heath workers worked outside the traditional healthcare delivery model to address these needs. Additionally, I was involved in an analysis of Cincinnati's pediatric Sickle cell population, describing their disease outcomes by neighborhoods. This is especially important in Cincinnati due to the challenges that sickle cell patients, the majority of whom are African American, face in this region.

Overall, I am very grateful for the opportunity to work with people who dedicate their time improving the lives of others. In healthcare, it is easy to simply focus on disease processes and cures rather than addressing the other socioeconomic factors that impact patient health. However, seeing how many people have made it their mission to treat the whole person and address all of their needs, I have gained new perspective on true healing that I can use in the future as a physician.

Download Ronay's poster (.pptx)