Kelsey and Joe Ann, her site supervisor at the Tele-Heart program, are pictured above.
After my year of service with Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry, I moved to Atlanta where I studied Public Health at Emory College. After graduating from Emory with my Masters in Public Health, I accepted a position at a Population Health Management Technology company. It is a unique organization that allows providers to “zoom out” and look at their population as a whole to come up with more specific community health interventions to manage the health of the most at risk populations within their practices. I was looking for a position that would use my passion for population health management and the skills that I learned at Emory to serve communities in need. Even though I am farther removed from hands on preventative care than before, I still feel as though I am making an impact.
Working with Joe Ann in the Tele-Heart program during my year of service is what made me realize my passion for population health management. Joe Ann is able to educate and manage congestive heart failure patients in West Baltimore because she knows that population so well: upon meeting someone, she knows how at risk they are, what risk factors to keep an eye out for, and how to best go about their health education and management. I still look back in awe at how Tele-Heart runs so effectively and helps so many people, running just on the passion and love of one wonderful woman. My position now will allow other providers to get to know their population of patients as well as Joe Ann knows the population at Bon Secours.
My year with Bon Secours Volunteer Ministry has given me a mindset that allows me to live happily with what I have. My year serving at Bon Secours Baltimore Hospital also provided me with the ability to open my heart and humble myself to people very different from myself to find commonalities and connections. While in school, I was working at the Mexican Consulate, referring patients to free clinics and providing health education sessions geared specifically to the Latino population. I learned how to find similarities in conversation and open myself up to new acquaintances in a way that allowed me to love them instantly. The Consulate position was fluid and required people to take their own initiative to better the program. Because of my time in Baltimore and the passion that inspired me while interacting with the Sisters of Bon Secours, I was able to remain impassioned and truly did my best to leave a lasting value to the Consulate health program and with each person I interacted with during my day there.