Extreme Hospital Extravaganza Adventure of Enlightenment Day 1

Today was my first day shadowing at Metro Health Hospital. It started with an encounter with an eccentric woman named Carol, who, while she was not a patient nor an employee at Metro, assured me that everything was going to be fine as long as I just took a deep breath. For those of you who don't know what or where it is, Metro is a teaching hospital on West 25th street near the heart of the city of Cleveland. After I made all the introductions for the day, I sat down with one of my mentors who gave me a brief overview of what she did, and the hospital in general. Sheerli Ratner is a clinical psychologist at Metro Health who works mostly with referred patients from Family Medicine. She has also worked in private practice and we talked about the pros and cons of both. We talked about the population of patients at Metro and I was not at all surprised that it is extraordinarily different from anything around Hawken. Being near the heart of the city, the people there commonly have to deal with poverty, higher rates of crime and violence, and on top of all of that they still have to deal with the same mental and physical health issues that all of us do. Sitting in on two of the talk therapy sessions allowed me to see that firsthand. The first patient was mostly in to get doctor's approval for his social security checks. The second man however, talked his heart out. It was both a beautiful and humbling experience. He spoke about his friends, his job, his faith but he mainly focused on his family. He is basically raising his kids by himself and is trapped in an abusive relationship. He is the breadwinner of the family and the caretaker of both his house and children. After 7 years of suffering through it, he has finally taken steps to better his sense of self, outlook on life, and his level of happiness through therapy. As he continued speaking, I saw him come to realizations about his life, for example, he began by taking about how his wife treated him poorly, but eventually began saying how his wife is jealous about how he is the more loved parent (and for good reason). At one point he was so thankful for Dr. Ratner that he broke down in tears because of how much of an impact she had on his life. Being able to witness that was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and I'm sure to never forget it. If the days that follow are half as enlightening as today I would be absolutely ecstatic.