Underserved pathway mentor, and all-round inspiring person

Do you ever meet someone really inspiring? I mean, really, really inspiring? I meet inspiring people all the time: teachers, volunteers, members of my family, there are tons of people who are dedicated to making the world a better place. I written in the past about people I find inspiring (check out my blog entry that I wrote last year 'Milly, my newest hero'). Since beginning medical school I have meet even more inspiring people. In particular, I have found people who are dedicated to providing medical care to Seattle's poorest and most disadvantaged populations very inspiring. Last year, I posted about how much I enjoyed my preceptorship with Dr. Huntington at the Haborview Family Med Clinic. A large portion of the population the Haborview Family Med clinic sees are immigrants (particularly from Somalia and Ethiopia), some homeless individuals and some poorer African American and Spanish speaking populations. Anyway, another physician who also works at the same clinic as Dr. Huntington is Raye Maestas. Dr. Maestas is the head of the Denali college and helps teach the Introduction to Clinical Medicine I course that med students take during first year. From these situations I already thought of Dr. Maestas as an incredible person, but as I learned more about what she did with the underserved I was even more awed.

Over half a year ago, when I started second year, I decided that in addition to the Global Health Pathway, I also wanted to do the Underserved Pathway because of my amazing experiences at the Haborview Family Med Clinic. When I filled out the Underserved Pathway application I asked if I could possibly get a mentor who works with immigrant populations or was from the Haborview Family Med Clinic and I included Dr. Maestas's name along with Dr. Huntington's and some other physicians who worked in the office. I was so incredibly fortunate that Dr. Maestas agreed to be my underserved pathway mentor. She is so inspiring. I have really enjoyed talking with her more and hearing about her advocacy work that she has done on behalf of the disadvantaged (she has done a lot with domestic violence and several other similar areas) and how she worked to influence policy on a larger scale.

Throughout recent experiences and seeing what amazing things family physicians can and have accomplished within poorer communities, I find myself being drawn more towards family medicine. I still might do peds (let's face it - kids are awesome!), but I really enjoy spending time with elderly individuals as well. There is something so calming and fun about seeing older retired people and hearing stories from the Great Depression and World Warr II. Also, it seems like it would be nice to be able to take care of an individual's entire family. Although it is not as high status, family medicine is also completely compatible with international work and being able to handle a wide variety of situations overseas. In another fun experience, we had a family physician come talk to our class from the Country Doc clinic in Seattle (it is a community clinic that also serves a poorer population). He was enthusiastic about what he does and told us that many people think that family docs don't specialize, but they are wrong. He said that as a family doc working in that clinic he become a specialist in poverty medicine. Which was a fascinating concept. I think that if I do have to split my time between working internationally in Africa and here in the States (for licencing requirements,etc), when I work in the states I want to work with poorer immigrant populations such as those seen at Haborview and the Country Doc Clinic.

We will see as I enter clinical rotations next year if I am still leaning towards family medicine. I am still keeping an open mind to all residency possibilities. I just thought I would update you on where my current thinking is.


A picture of my underserved pathway mentor, Raye Maestas, and me. She is also the head of the Denali College which our ICM II small group belongs to.

Among many other accomplishments she was recently honored in the University of Washington Libraries Women in Medicine Exhibit as a "Local Legend." Here is the link if you are interested:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/locallegends/Biographies/Maestas_Ramoncita.html