Scholarship Essay Entry – Erin Q.

My name is Erin Q and I am a student in Public Health Sciences at the University of Alberta.  I am currently pursuing my Master of Public Health degree in Health Promotion.  I also work full time in healthcare adminstration.   
 
It has been through my work that I have had the privilege to meet many health professionals and to view health through many different lenses.  This work experience has definitely driven me toward a masters program in the health profession.  But it has been through my Health Promotion courses that I have truly found my passion and have solidified what I believe to be the most important aspects of health-the social aspects that affect the quality of life and subsequently the health of every person.
 
 I am passionate about improving the quality of life of every citizen and of touching peoples lives and empowering them to find better health for themselves within their unique circumstance.  I am cognoscente of the reality that health is not only achieved by watching what you eat and by what you do for your body.  If one does not have: clean water, an adequate amount of food, or even a social support network, than that individual does not have the same chance at living a healthy life than someone who has access to those resources.  I want to use my degree to change the way that health professionals treat and feel about their patients and their patients’ health.  I want to use my influence and my voice to change the way society views choice verses chance.   The view is still prevalent that individuals choose to live high-risk lifestyles, that are accompanied  by negative health behaviors.  This can negatively effect how the health provider treats the individual and the level of care they receive.  I want to work to show that health choices that may land someone on the street such as drug use were not the chosen path of the individual but were perhaps the result of a childhood spent in abject poverty-they were never given the chance.  
 
I want to help physicians ask the right questions, those that concern the patients home life and their job security-both vital to the patients overall health-instead of only the “medical” questions. It is interesting to note that certain care providers would call someone “non-compliant” if they were not taking their prescribed medication.  This patient would most likely be talked down to in a paternalistic manner.  In reality this patient may have a large family to support and possibly no job, or little money left over to pay for their medication.  The patient is not disobeying, they are simply attempting to navigate their given circumstance in the only way they know how, but unfortunately it is their self esteem and their physical and emotional health that suffers.  
 
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to share with you my passion and my hope to change my community for the sake and the health of patients and people everywhere.