‹ Back

5 Quick Questions With Christian Medina 

 

1. What is your role in the RI healthcare community?

I am a Medical Assistant, Spanish and Portuguese Medical interpreter, Health Justice Advocate and incoming Medical Student.

 

2. What do you love about your job?

I dedicated myself to serving my community at Jenks Park Pediatrics, a local pediatric clinic that provides free medical services. During my three years at this clinic, my role has extended beyond that of an interpreter and medical assistant: I have been an advocate, fighting against healthcare disparities to achieve the same quality of service similar to affluent neighborhoods. Serving the city of Central Falls, a place I proudly call home, at this clinic has been a beacon of hope in a region hindered by economic hardship and limited resources.

 

3. What is the biggest challenge that you face when providing care to your patient population?

Though my experience at Jenks Park Pediatrics highlighted my strengths in health advocacy, my role at Jenks Park Pediatrics shed light on challenges I faced in fighting for a just system; listening to testimonies of members of my community facing adversities in their health has occasionally led me to becoming too emotionally involved in patient care, which sometimes impacts my work when encountering future patients.

 

4. What are some healthcare barriers that your non-English speaking patients face?

- Language barriers. Though the entire JPP staff speaks either Spanish, Portuguese, Cape-verdean Creole, and/or French, in addition to English, we do occasionally receive patients who are from countries with different languages, which serves as a barrier to care on the basis of communication

- Transportation

- Money/Insurance. JPP provides free medical services, but in cases where a patient is in need of any form of medical interventions beyond what our pediatric clinic offers, most clinics/hospitals would deny service due to medicaid status or lack of insurance

- Safe Housing/Food insecurities. If a patient is experiencing chronic fatigue, Jenks Park Pediatrics may aid the patient through the means of direct interventions such as prescribing medications, however, these medical interventions do nothing when these children and families live in homes exposed with led or if they not have enough money to properly provide their family with healthy foods, leading to malnutrition.

 

5. If you could make one change to the RI healthcare system, what would it be?

- State-wide free healthcare (though very unlikely), no one should be "too poor" to receive ANY form of medical care. Everyone should have a right to ensure their well-being is up to par

- Pay our PCPs more! They do so much for our communities

- More multi-lingual staff or interpretive technology to deconstruct language barriers (without violating HIPAA)

 

Anything else you'd like to add about current challenges facing the RI healthcare community?

We need to shift the culture of medical professionals seeing patients as dollar signs, numbers on a lab, or statistics pertaining to their conditions/identity. The ONLY way to promote the health of any individual is approaching each patient-encounter through a holistic lens and understanding the pathologies of their life, not just the ones in their physical body. Medical services mean nothing if a healthcare provider merely administers antibiotics without including humanity and humility in their treatment plans.