- What do you know?
- Explain what you already know about your essential question. Explain why the topic is important to you, and what is motivating your inquiry.
- In my summer before Junior year, I travelled to Cambodia with an organization that I had been volunteering with throughout the year called Tassel. The program is meant to provide English education to people in rural areas of Cambodia who are suffering financially and emotionally due to the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide. During the trip, we went on many visits to students’ homes and talked to families about their living conditions. Something that struck me was the abysmal health care system that many families have in many villages in Cambodia. There are very little hospitals, so when people are in need for medical care, they often need to walk for many hours, sometimes even days to get to a reach one, and oftentimes when they arrive, there is no medicine, or underqualified doctors who cannot do anything to help.
It wasn’t until last year, when I took an English elective class called Literature of Medicine when I realized this could be a problem even in our own country, which is considered to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. In this class, we analyzed medical literature written from perspectives of doctors and patients of different racial and economic stand points. It was the first time that I had really seen medicine as such an intersectional profession. It is not as black and white in terms of just, helping people who are in need, as it is made out to be. Growing up with many of my relatives being doctors, I have been fortunate enough to never have to even consider worrying about health care. Travelling to Cambodia, and reading these narratives, I was struck at the horrific medical inequalities within our world and even in our country.
- In my summer before Junior year, I travelled to Cambodia with an organization that I had been volunteering with throughout the year called Tassel. The program is meant to provide English education to people in rural areas of Cambodia who are suffering financially and emotionally due to the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge genocide. During the trip, we went on many visits to students’ homes and talked to families about their living conditions. Something that struck me was the abysmal health care system that many families have in many villages in Cambodia. There are very little hospitals, so when people are in need for medical care, they often need to walk for many hours, sometimes even days to get to a reach one, and oftentimes when they arrive, there is no medicine, or underqualified doctors who cannot do anything to help.
- What understandings and experiences are you bringing with you as you start this research process?
- The only past experience that I have with my topic is the Literature of Medicine class I took in my junior year, as well as a medical ethics class within a biomedical summer camp that I took over the summer. We discussed different medical dilemmas and there were many conversations that I would like to expand on in my project.
- How have any outside sources informed your understanding of your essential question?
- Through reading narratives, I became aware of the intersectionality of the field of medicine. I learned of issues such as medical racism, classism, as well as ethical dilemmas considering the environment, or patient care that I had never considered before.
- How have any outside sources informed your understanding of your essential question?
- The only past experience that I have with my topic is the Literature of Medicine class I took in my junior year, as well as a medical ethics class within a biomedical summer camp that I took over the summer. We discussed different medical dilemmas and there were many conversations that I would like to expand on in my project.
- Explain what you already know about your essential question. Explain why the topic is important to you, and what is motivating your inquiry.
- What don’t you know?
- Why is it important for you to find out more about this question. Tell what you want to know about your essential question?
- Medical ethics is a very large field and I’m sure there are aspects of it that I can expand upon or am still not even aware of. I also don’t know very much about the EMT material that I’m learning. I think it will be very interesting to physically be in the field while reading about other perspectives and opinions.
- What are the areas of inquiry that you think need to be explored?
- I would like to bring all of the different aspects of my project together with my essential question: Why is it that some people have almost unlimited medical care when others have none?
- What are the other questions that are lurking just beneath the surface of your guiding essential question?
- What are the different contributing factors to medical inequalities?
- What is the root of many of the medical inequalities in America?
- What future ethical dilemmas are there to consider?
- Why is it important for you to find out more about this question. Tell what you want to know about your essential question?