Healthcare Service Learning in Hamdard

Healthcare inspires me to push my boundaries with knowledge and cultural awareness. Stimulate knowledge to new innovative ideas and challenging me to want to improve my cultural understanding. Hamdard changed my perspective on how I perceive a standard healthcare facility along with services that it can provide. My service learning at Hamdard includes the rich history of Hamdard, my experience, and the relationship of terms in class.

Hamdard of 1992, offers fellowship, support, healthcare, and a sense of community (Hamdard Healthcare). Patients at Hamdard can take advantage of an array of languages that are spoken by all of their staff as well as, quality care for patients and their families. Hamdard’s community that it serves to feel welcome and taken care of when in the presence of its wonderful and caring staff that look over them. Hamdard started by its co-founders named Dr. Mohammad Hamid and Dr. Farzana Hamid. Hamdard’s website states, “Our staff speaks up to 10 languages spoken by patients and has a deep appreciation for their diverse backgrounds. Community-focused care provided in a warm setting, allowing patients to feel comfortable and empowered to improve their health” (Hamdard Health). Hamdard wants their patients to feel that they are appreciated and heard with the culture that they bring to the table to make this sense of belonging possible. Hamdard, located in two locations, include Devon and Addison and I volunteer at the Devon location. They offer flexible hours and truly deal a sense of community within their facility.

My experience at Hamdard truly opened my eyes and one that partakes in the change of my perspective on a lot of things. During my time at Hamdard, one of the most humbling experience that I encountered was volunteering at the MCC (Muslim Community Center) performing health screenings. When I was there I helped gather heights and weights of the people who wanted to get their health screening. I would then, calculate their BMI on a slip of paper and lead them go to the blood pressure reading station. I thought it was really amazing that they offer this to their community at a place where they go to frequently and offer it right at their convenience. To continue, when I am at the Hamdard on Devon location I usually help the nurse file patient’s paperwork into filing cabinets. On one instance, the nurse told me to update the CDC binder so that patients can be up to date on what vaccinations they need and why they need them. I entered the CDC website and printed off their most up to date versions of the documents. On another note, right now I am currently finding the third location for Hamdard with Brittany Jarvis. Researching towns based off of the United States Census is where we extract all of our facts that would be imperative to know in order to choose a town. Our requirements for finding a town include what percentage of the population has their high school diploma or their GED and if they attain a bachelor’s degree, what percentage of the population is uninsured under 65, what percentage of the population has a disability under 65, what percentage of the population is unemployed, and what percentage of the population speaks another language other than English in their household. With that information and more time, we will find the next location of Hamdard with hard work and research.

Lastly, this relates to class with how their patients pay for their care at Hamdard. They are told to apply, “for the Health Insurance Marketplace has ended. You may be eligible for a Special Enrollment Period. You can apply for the Medicaid program at any time” (Hamdard Healthcare). In class we talked about Health Insurance Market place and how it’s a part of the ACA with providing care to families and small businesses with comparable health care, easily understood, and available online. Along with this we discussed Medicaid, which assists low income families with medical costs and it’s funded by the federal government (Sultz 402-403).