Page 69 - Humanism 2019

Left nationless, and thus without access to such nation’s
universal health care system.
And any possibility to obtain treatment of his HIV,
legally.

And I mourned with his mother his death,
When after missing for months, he reappeared
In a carry-on,
in the middle of the street.
A message to the community: Pay your debts promptly.
Or end up like me.

As a future health care worker, a neighbor, and a human
I must ask myself

What could be the motivations behind such precautions
That patients feel inclined to take,
to guard themselves against
A system that was meant to be there for them, at the times when
they need the most relief?

To endanger my own life — For the prospect of a chance to pay for
medications so that I might live another day?
To lie — for shame? For fear of rejection? — about the chemicals which
course through my veins?
To protect my children from what? A look of pity, a traceable paper
trail, and so instead I elect to take their place?

To prefer to live with a bullet in my chest, rather than expose myself
to another authoritative figure
Who holds perhaps not a gun,
but rather a scalpel in its place?

These cracks that persist in this precariously fragile system;
Fissures which our patients try to fill with newspaper and old t-shirts
Rather than plaster and concrete,
Are these not as a future practitioner as much my responsibility to
treat?

Mend the gaps, College of Graduate Nursing MSN-E
program partners with UrbanMission in
the deficits, Pomona. MSN-E students and faculty
the distrust. hold the final “Women in Power” seriers
of the year with UrbanMission
Treat the bullet holes.
community members. Activities included
So that then meditation, thank yous and appreciation,
we might take care of the head colds. Zumba and food, November 2018.
Photos by Jeff Malet, Multimedia
Manager, WesternU Public Affairs
and Marketing

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HUMANISM IN THE HEALTH SCIENCES 2019 • VOL. 22UMANISM IN THE HEALTH SCIENCES 2019 • VOL. 22 6666