Goals

I have always been motivated to work and help people as a part of my upbringing. Which led me down to the path of successfully becoming a doctor and now into a “would-be Public health professional”. This path which I have chosen will never have an ultimate goal, as I believe my learnings and experiences will evolve my goals into a more superior motive. My lived experiences have brought me to me public health where I am passionate to pursue the domains of palliative care, child health, mental health and counselling, and planetary health.  

Thus, in a future one-year timeline I see myself proactively engaged with improving the accessibility of palliative care. I am keen on identifying the gaps that I would discover through my current process of my research dissertation and proposing scalable innovative solutions and with minimal implementation gaps. My current dissertation is about Narcotic drugs and Psychotropic Substance act amended in 2014 from a palliative care perspective. I have expressed my interest in the domain and have plans to work with an organization which actively works in palliative care in Kerala, after my graduation.  Apart from this, I would like to travel to different places and get to have the lived experiences that would help me appreciate the scope of public health in our country.  

With these lived experiences I would plan out my agendas and domains where I want to work on, thus helping me plan what I want to do in three years down the line. Public health has massive scope for growth, thus love to get an opportunity to work on systems thinking analysis (implementation research), economic evaluations and Health technology Assessment (HTA) projects which continuously strive for better planning and solutions. 

My limited experience in public health, I have identified that stigma does seeps into a health facet. I believe ideologies do not change easily; however, I would take the initiative to bring about a change in the attitude of neglect which is observed in health seeking behaviours of people. We have seen increased health consciousness in the privileged masses, hope I strive and succeed to bring uniformity in health behaviour.  

SELF REFLECTION

The assignment on COVID-19 situation made me to investigate the pandemic situation in South America. It gave me a chance to analyses the various interventions taken by different countries. In case of Peru, early actions of lockdown were rolled out yet there was a rise in mortality was noticed. This helped to notice that how community management is also important in a successful lockdown.

The presentation done by other interns were informative and were pointers that I could inculcate or learn from. I was great to hear viewpoints of different people and their doubt that were clarified.

Got an opportunity to delve into various topics during the COVID crisis like the information crisis, the food crisis, migrants, digital innovations, and its regularizations. Learnt to emphasize on research in public health. The approach to public health is comprehensive considering various aspects.

The virtual internship process was a new method of engaging oneself during the lockdown. The tasks and the assignments were engaging and motivated me to work. Thus, I can reiterate by saying that I tried to utilize my time and learnt new things. Given the situation, our habits and our ways must be changed to adapt. Earlier we used to attend conferences for additional knowledge. Now webinars and virtual internships are highly encouraged. The advancement in technology has definitely benefitted us in continuing our work and learning in the COVID crisis.