Healthcare Service Learning

My passion for healthcare motivates me to expand my knowledge base and become more culturally conscious. Encourage knowledge of fresh, creative concepts and the desire to deepen my awareness of many cultures. My perception of a typical healthcare center and the services it can provide has been altered by Hamdard. The rich history of Hamdard, my experience, and the connections between terminology learned in class all play a part in my service learning at Hamdard.

Hamdard, founded in 1992, provides companionship, assistance, medical care, and a feeling of community (Hamdard Healthcare). All of the personnel at Hamdard speaks a variety of languages, and patients may benefit from excellent treatment for both patients and their families. The Hamdard community that it serves is made to feel at home and well-cared-for when they are among its great and kind employees. Dr. Mohammad Hamid and Dr. Farzana Hamid are the two co-founders of Hamdard. According to the Hamdard website, “Our team speaks up to 10 different languages and has a profound understanding of individuals’ varied origins. The provision of community-focused care in a welcoming environment enables patients to feel at ease and empowered to improve their health (Hamdard Health). With the culture they bring to the table, Hamdard hopes to provide its patients a feeling of belonging by making them feel valued and heard. I volunteer in the Devon site of Hamdard, which has two locations: Addison and Devon. They provide flexible scheduling and really foster a feeling of community at their location.

My time at Hamdard really changed my view on a number of things and opened my eyes to new possibilities. One of the most humbling experiences I had at Hamdard was helping to give health exams at the MCC (Muslim Community Center). I assisted in gathering the weights and heights of those who wanted to have a health check while I was there. I would then write their BMI down on a piece of paper and direct them to the station where I would take their blood pressure. The fact that they provide this to their community at a location where they usually go and provide it at their convenience truly amazed me. To continue, I normally assist the nurse in putting the patient’s documentation into filing cabinets while I’m at the Hamdard on Devon site. In one case, the nurse instructed me to update the CDC booklet so that patients would be informed of the necessary immunizations and their benefits. I went to the CDC website and printed the materials in their most recent iterations. Aside from that, Brittany Jarvis and I are now looking for Hamdard’s third location. We get all of the information needed to make an informed decision about a community by researching towns using the United States Census. We look for towns that meet certain criteria, such as how many people have a high school diploma or GED and whether they go on to earn a bachelor’s degree, how many people are under 65 and without health insurance, how many people have disabilities, how many people are unemployed, and how many people speak a language other than English at home. We will work hard and do extensive investigation to locate Hamdard’s future location with that knowledge and additional time.

Last but not least, this pertains to the class because of how Hamdard’s patients pay for their therapy. They are instructed to submit an application since the Health Insurance Marketplace is closed. It’s possible that you qualify for a special enrollment period. The Medicaid program accepts applications at any time (Hamdard Healthcare). We discussed the Health Insurance MarketPlace in class and how it functions as a component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to provide affordable, comparable health care to families and small companies. Along with this, we spoke about Medicaid, a federally sponsored program that helps low-income families with medical expenses (Sultz 402-403).