Page 17 - Layout 1
P. 17
POPULATION
HEALTH
ming from the traumatic situations from which the refugees are Fadi Al-Asadi’s experience at the SARHC shows how important the clinic is for
forced to flee. Even those who do manage to access health insurance both the patients we serve and the student volunteers that are empowered by
or CareLink often have difficulty navigating the complexities of our pre-clinical patient interactions that serve as a reminder of why we came to med-
healthcare system, a task daunting even for many well-educated ical school in the first place: “I had just learned a few physical exam skills and
Americans. The SARHC plays a vital role in offering these patients how to collect a basic patient history when I first volunteered at the SARHC and
free outpatient care while working with the Center for Refugee Serv- met my first patients, a family of three from Iraq. Instead of shying away, I dove
ices to find ways to link them to the local healthcare system. We ad- headfirst into the experience. Just like that, I became a part of the body of enthu-
dress a variety of ailments, from back pain, flu-like symptoms, siastic clinic volunteers, and I enjoyed every aspect of it. I was touched by the
headache, and rash to uncontrolled diabetes, chronic hypertension, gratitude that my patients expressed as we spoke. Their marked appreciation is
and dental disease. Blood work, imaging services, and basic medica- representative of the general refugee population in San Antonio, which serves as
tions are provided at no cost to the patients, thanks to funding from motivation for the continued enthusiasm and the dedication of the many clinic
the School of Nursing and the UTHSA Center for Medical Human- volunteers. Given my personal experience as a refugee from Iraq, I sympathized
ities and Ethics (CMHE), among others. with every patient who walked into the SARHC. I felt that I owed it to the refugee
community to serve them however I could.”
We first experienced the SARHC as volunteers during the initial
months of medical school. In a welcomed break from the pre-clinical They are reminded of their motivation to pursue a career serving
curriculum, we had the opportunity to make meaningful connec-
tions with real patients instead of textbooks. After several patient en- patients and easing the lives of others by practicing healthcare that
counters as SARHC volunteers, we were both driven to become
medical student leaders of the clinic, which involved managing the emphasizes the commonality of the human condition across all ages,
student volunteers and working with our faculty and the nursing
and dental leaders to restructure various aspects of the clinic. cultures, and creeds.
Volunteers at the clinic are undoubtedly moved by how their pa- Eden Berstein (left, above) and Fadi Al-Asadi (left,
tients’ specific health ailments are related to the more general struggle below) are currently third year medical students at UT
that San Antonio refugees face. In a focus group study that we con- Health San Antonio. Eden and Fadi served as Medical Stu-
ducted to evaluate the impact of the clinic, we learned more about dent Leaders of the San Antonio Refugee Health Clinic in
the refugee experience and how vital the clinic is for many of these 2015.
patients. Many refugees told us stories about how they purposely
avoid the Emergency Department in fear of an insurmountable med- To make a donation to the refugee clinic go
ical bill after their 6-8 months of Medicaid expires. While some to https://makelivesbetter.uthscsa.edu/sslpage.aspx?pid=5
refugee groups have strong support within their communities, others 02 and choose "Student Faculty Collaborative Practice"
described a sense of isolation and depression. As one Iraqi refugee and the amount of money you would like to donate. You
explained, “Especially if you don’t have any English language, how will be directed to a page where you can mention that the
are you going to express your feelings? Even if you have friends here, donation is towards the refugee clinic.
they are busy working. That reflects on your body. The pain, you
cannot feel. Your body cannot feel.” At the SARHC, these social fac-
tors permeate into discussions about health in the form of personal
narratives, which are often complex and emotional. In trying to em-
pathize and help our patients, volunteers tend to develop a deep ad-
miration with this population, and some feel motivated to dedicate
their time to the clinic on a weekly basis, a formidable task for any
busy health professions student.
One refugee from Burma articulated his perception of the struggle
of refugees in San Antonio: “We left our countries and we became
refugees here because we suffered there and we come here and then
start suffering here too.” With help from UTHSA and CMHE fac-
ulty, St. Francis church, and the generosity of grant donors, volun-
teers at the SARHC practice medicine in an exceptional setting.
visit us at www.bcms.org 17
