Jeremy Medina is a Nursing student and current Junior Class President at Emory Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.
We had a chance to sit down with Jeremy and ask him a few questions and talk about his pre-health journey.
What have been impactful events that have lead you to this pre-health track?
Being a first generation student at a university like Emory, you can sometimes be thrown into the Pre-Med track without really knowing what that means or that there are even other healthcare options to pursue. I knew that I wanted to go into healthcare. I always described wanting to interact with patients, advocating for them, and really having a more holistic approach to their care. I realized later that the main role of MDs was to work behind-the-scenes and decide what to prescribe and the course of action for patients… and that just wasn’t me. Allied Health professions are jobs that let you interact with patients. That’s the kind of profession that I want to go to. Already the things I’m learning in the nursing makes me feel more ready if I do want to do healthcare. There’s no reason why I wouldn’t want to do nursing.
What was the most difficult part of your pre-health career?
For me, the hardest part is that even though nursing school exposes you to an abundance of experiences and really prepares you for your job, there are still stigmas in which nurses are just seen as the “dirty work” staff members and sometimes are not even regarded as healthcare professionals. There are obvious power dynamics in hospitals settings, such as when people see nurses as being under someone (a doctor) rather than seeing them as two independent jobs that just work together to deliver patient care. For nurses, it’s bound to be a difficult ongoing battle of not only advocating for patients on the daily, but also for oneself as a respected healthcare professional.
What helped guide you to where you are now?
Dialogues with my roommate, Joseph Lee (one of our very own PHA Peer Mentors!). I think just being able to have conversations about my goals, sense of purpose, and motivations helped me to narrow down what career path I eventually wanted to go into.
What do you wish you knew 5 years ago?
I remember during my first-year at Emory, there was a pre-health seminar. During this seminar, there was a brief talk about different pre-health careers, but I could tell the seminar was definitely centered more around the pre-med route, not other pre-health tracks. That being said, I wish I came into college knowing that there were more healthcare career options than just MD.
If you could start over, what would you change?
From an early age, I think we’re constantly presented with this idea that becoming an MD is the “ideal” medical route. Of course, physicians are important and necessary, but even I was brought up with the mentality that if you don’t become a doctor, you haven’t really “made it.” At the time, I didn’t understand just how ignorant this mindset was. It took a lot of time and reflection for me to finally unlearn this false notion… I wish I had freed myself from that “MD or nothing” mentality sooner.
Did you have a specific mentor that inspired you to get to where you are now?
The only thing I did that was healthcare related before nursing school was volunteering at Grady Hospital. Although the staff and doctors were helpful in exposing me to the hospital setting, the real inspiration came from doing service work and being able to help members of my own community. Especially when considering a community affected by persecution, language barriers, lack of public funding, etc., just knowing I can be a resource to the people around me drives me to continue pursuing my endeavors.
What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
Time management. I think the nursing school does a fine job of distributing the curriculum around so that you get some days that are jam-packed with classes and others in which you can sleep in and have no class. However, even when there are days off, there’s this underlying feeling that you can always be doing something with your time. It could be something to improve your grades, give you leisure, prepare you for your career… whatever the case, think ahead and map it out. Lastly, find people to study and practice with since your entire cohort has all of the same core classes. For me, being successful in nursing school mimics what being successful in a nursing career would take; communication and collaboration are very important. Find that niche.
What is the best advice you could give someone?
My advice to anyone would be to think about what you want to achieve in healthcare and let that decide which degree you want to ultimately pursue. If your goal is help patients then do that. If you want to do research, then go for it. If you’re fascinated about the global or community aspect of health, consider public health. Think about what you really want to do and tie that with what the degree/job entails.
What is the best advice you could give to someone doing nursing?
My favorite thing as a pre-nursing student is finding the right people to grow with on this journey. At the end of the day, we are all pursuing a degree that speaks magnitudes about the healthcare professions we want to be and are striving to become. Being alongside people with similar endeavors as me makes it easy to connect with them and work towards that common goal. Personally, it’s been a very unifying experience.