“There’s so many people that are losing their lives. It just pushes me to want to be in that field.”

A neuroscience and biology major, Rachel Blank began working at Aurora St. Luke’s South Shore in May 2021. She told Lauren Breunig how the experience shaped her relationship with health care.

(Lauren Breunig) What led you to pick your major?

(Rachel Blank) I would say my initial interest in science is what brought me down this path. I remember being in the second grade and I saw DNA testing kit. That was what I wanted for Christmas. I grew up with several family members that were physically disabled. My aunt and uncle both had spina bifida, which impacted their mobility and their ability to take care of themselves. I spent a lot of my time at nursing homes or in the hospital with them. It kind of framed my childhood as constantly dealing with family’s health care problems, worrying about families that were in the hospital.

(Breunig) Could you tell me a little bit about your job at St. Luke’s?

(Blank) I work in patient access at St. Luke’s South Shore hospital. So basically, what I do is I operate the emergency switchboard where I take calls, and I make emergency notifications for the hospital. When ambulances arrive, I tell them where to go. So, it’s not as hands on patients, but it’s really gotten me experienced with how hospital work and like the, the back end of health care.

(Breunig) What has it been like to see the inner workings of health care at your job? How as that impacted your decision to go to medical school? 

(Blank) I guess it’s kind of driven me to continue down this path, because I think there is a lack of empathetic people in healthcare. So even though it seems kind of kind of dark, and there’s so many people that are losing their lives, I think it just pushes me to want to be in that field, and understand how viruses are changing, and how we can continue to adapt and help people.

(Breunig) And what do you mean exactly by there’s a lack of empathetic people in health care?

(Blank) I think a lot of doctors lack the empathy that is necessary to relate to their patients, just from personal experiences, family members experiences, I think that’s a big issue and why people are hesitant about receiving medical care or taking vaccines is that they have had experiences where they haven’t felt like they’re being listened to. They didn’t feel heard. They didn’t feel like they’re receiving the care that they needed.

(Breunig) In addition to the lack of empathy, have you noticed other ways the system has let down the patients you’re working with or others that you know?

(Blank) Oh, absolutely. I think that your ability to pay for services can drastically impact the amount of care the quality of care that you get. I have a family member who had a traumatic brain injury. And just because of lack of economic ability, she hasn’t been able to get the right amount of care, the right amount of therapy, and that has really limited amount of recovery. So that was pretty impactful for me, and understanding that our whole system has a big problem with not only empathy, but also access to the kinds of services that you can get. I think that the fact that healthcare has become so driven by money, it has kind of taken out the core of what it is, which is helping people and listening to people.

(Breunig) Has this disconnect between the need for care and financial resources impacted your job?

(Rachel Blank) With health insurance, there’s often times where I have to talk to a patient, and let them know that certain services are not going to be covered or to let them know that this is the going to be the cost of their ER visit where they were not expecting such a high cost for services that they truly needed. So, it’s frustrating to see, and it’s hard to have to be the one to deliver that news. But it is kind of reinforces that for me that this is a big problem. And it is something we need to change because it impacts these people’s lives so much.

(Breunig) How do having conversations like that every day at work affect you?

(Blank) It does have kind of a drain on you. I kind of feel powerless, because it is such a big systemic problem. And I can’t do anything about it at this time. It’s frustrating, and it’s sad. But I try to keep going because there’s very little we can do as individuals to fix such a huge problem.