As a Health Worker, Here ’s Why Advocacy Is Important to Me

By Mary Peter, 2022 IntraHealth-UNC Summer FellowJune 17, 2022I knew I wanted a career in medicine as early as elementary school. My passion was born out of curiosity. My younger brother had recurrent difficulty breathing and needed emergency hospital care often. I wanted to know why these attacks kept occurring. But I also wanted to know why we had to wait long hours to get emergency care and why the hospital had no electricity or was out of medications or essential health care products.Growing up in such a dysfunctional health care system fueled my passion.I wanted to help others so they wouldn’t have to go through the same ordeal my family did. I thought being a physician would give me a golden shot at doing this. It was therefore a no-brainer to return to my country, Nigeria, after completing my medical degree in Russia in 2018. I started working in primary care and volunteer medical outreach. I focused as best I could on patient care, despite the many daily hurdles I faced.Being a health worker can be very challenging.The job of a health worker can be rewarding. Nothing brings me so much joy and fulfillment as seeing clients who come in sick and frail leave the hospital healthy. However, being a health worker can also be very challenging. It’s particularly more challenging in lower-income countries where we must grapple with the lack of equipment, heavy workload due to staff shortages, the absence of professional development opportunities (especially for wo...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Policy & Advocacy Health Workers Physicians Source Type: news