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Hi.

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My name is Aniqa.

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I'm a senior and a
religion-biology double major.

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So this summer, I spent my time
divided between two internships

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in New York City.

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I'm from Queens, so that
solved the housing issue.

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The first internship
was [INAUDIBLE]

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who has a private practice as
a pediatric rheumatologist.

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And I got into this through
the alumni directory,

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which took a few attempts.

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So if you're ever discouraged
from reaching out,

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know that you can try again
and eventually someone

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might answer.

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The second internship was
at the New Jewish Home,

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a hospice where I've
been volunteering

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at for the past three years.

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And thanks to some networking
I did during my time there,

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I secured an internship
working as a [INAUDIBLE] intern

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in their [INAUDIBLE].

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Spoiler, it wasn't
actually Green House,

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which for some reason
shocked me even though I've

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been working there
for three years,

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there was actually
no green house.

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But the Green House
Project itself is a model

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that the NJH is
trying to implement

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that pushes to transform the way
long-term care is approached.

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There's a national movement
towards model care,

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at least as far as corporate
nonprofit nursing homes go.

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And so there are three core
values of this movement.

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And they are for elders
to live a meaningful life

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through the assistance
of an empowered staff

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and in the context that
strives to be [INAUDIBLE]..

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The Green House
Project at the NJH

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is a pilot program that
observes the first two missions

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because typically the Green
House homes are actually

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senior houses.

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And then NJH is [INAUDIBLE].

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It's just like one floor
and one [INAUDIBLE]..

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So I started out working at
the rheumatologist's office

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about a month
before the hospice.

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And so the way they
kind of worked out,

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the internships
ended up staggered.

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So there was a period
of about four weeks

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where I'd be running over from
the west side to the east side.

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And actually running, because
my impeccable judgment

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told me it was better to go by
foot than it was to take a bus.

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So I'd end up arriving at
the clinic drenched in sweat,

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ready to see the next round
of patients, which was great.

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But my work at
rheumatologist's office

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consisted of researching
new prescription drugs

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on the market, assisting her
with blood collections, some

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of the preliminary
workup, sitting in

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on appointments
with our patients,

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a lot of phone calls with
various companies and labs,

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and for the parents
of particularly

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precocious children,
babysitting and generally making

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sure they stayed alive.

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There was this one time that
I had to make a diaper run,

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and I'm kind of an
expert on diapers now.

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So if you had any questions
about diapers, [INAUDIBLE]..

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So diapers are actually the
perfect transition point,

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because a lot of the dementia
patients that I worked with

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were, as one might
expect, incontinent.

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And so they'd wear
these incontinence pads.

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And there was this one
resident in particular

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who always after
lunch would request

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the nurses to change her pad.

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It became a daily
part of a routine

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and if there was
ever a disruption,

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like say the CNA was busy eating
or making medicine rounds,

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she would go from staff to staff
asking that she be tended to.

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She was very alert and oriented
after [INAUDIBLE] care,

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which wasn't the case for
a lot of these residents.

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And so the reason I'm telling
this story is because my job

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as a [INAUDIBLE] intern was
to observe and listen and then

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report my findings
to my director

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during weekly staff meetings.

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During these periods of
observations of the residents,

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I would notice these
[INAUDIBLE] of each patient.

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They had at times discernible
and at other times

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indiscernible [INAUDIBLE]
gradually pick up on.

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And in fact, there
was a lot [INAUDIBLE]

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from observation [INAUDIBLE].

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But observation was not enough.

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There was this one resident
I greeted every morning when

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I got off the elevator, because
I'd usually find him sitting

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by the door [INAUDIBLE].

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I won't go into details about
this resident, [INAUDIBLE]..

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But this one morning,
I got off the elevator

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and as I greeted
him, I turned my back

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to speak with one of
the CNAs [INAUDIBLE]..

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The next thing I knew, he was
screaming in my ear in Spanish.

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Of the few words and sentences
I could make out were,

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don't something
[INAUDIBLE] rude girl.

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The CNA immediately
intervened to try and calm

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the resident down and
simultaneously extricated me

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from the situation.

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The CNA kept repeating
[SPEAKING SPANISH] She

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doesn't know.

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Moments like these tend
to have an impression,

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especially when you're
so violently jarred

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from complacency.

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And moments like these
also existed in my time

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with the rheumatologist.

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Like for example, when
physicians referred

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to the receptionists
as assistants

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and at times patients as
incompetent or poorly educated.

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Or a level of ignorance towards
a few minority working class

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patients that their
identities might

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come with many social
barriers that prevent them

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from accessing
certain resources.

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Or when a CNA would refuse
to teach a resident how

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to take a picture with a camera,
because it would inconvenience

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her in the long run.

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A part of me greatly admired
what these health care

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professionals took
on and the challenges

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that these health care
professionals took on

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and what they
confronted every day.

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But part of me was
also disappointed

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in the health care culture
I was being inoculated in.

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The performance of
ritual indoctrination

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that somehow made me complicit
to their actions and judgments.

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The CNA was right.

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I didn't know.

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But now that I knew
that I didn't know,

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I had an obligation to.

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I left my comfort zone
for the second time

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that summer when I
approached that yelled

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at me for the first time.

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The first time was
when I [INAUDIBLE]

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brought up [INAUDIBLE]
action to the rheumatologist

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when we were talking
about patient backgrounds.

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So I insisted to the resident
that we communicate in English

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because my Spanish was subpar
and far from conversational.

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And so in English he
told me about his life,

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the country he left behind, and
the brother who was actually

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a cousin, who would
visit him every so often,

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he'd bring him two
bottles of beer.

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He told me about respect in
his culture and incidentally

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that the one thing
he hasn't been

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able to tolerate since coming
to America, some 20 years ago

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was when someone turned
their back on an elder, which

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he called the highest
form of disrespect.

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So [INAUDIBLE] summer
[INAUDIBLE],, in particular

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to be a physician.

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But this summer
also made me wonder

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about the true nature of the
responsibilities [INAUDIBLE]..

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There is a need for the
role of the physician

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to be much more dynamic than as
it exists today in the present.

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As to what that will
look like going forward,

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I'm still figuring it out.

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And I'd like to
thank [INAUDIBLE] who

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was the rheumatologist,
[INAUDIBLE] who

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were my directors at
NJH and [INAUDIBLE]..

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[APPLAUSE]

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