My current identity, as a scholar, practitioner, and leader, has been shaped by several important personal and professional contexts, which I have engaged with as part of the process in which I seek to understand myself. I would say that my identity as a scholar has been defined by the interactions that I have had with different scholars in the field of public health. The interactions have provided me with a clear understanding of the challenges facing the public health system especially on matters of health service delivery. The interactions provided me with a clear understanding of the fact that the public health system is ailing to some extent. This has been driven by the fact that the system fails to create that holistic platform from which to advance delivery of expected services matching demands within the populations.
In one of the reports, I focused on the issue of health literacy among homeless veterans in the United States from where I was able to learn more from scholars that indeed there exists a systemic challenge regarding health literacy. From the report, I was able to take note of the fact that the number of homeless veterans is increasing at a significant rate in the United States with the number creating a major challenge in terms of promoting health literacy. Through this study I was able to develop a positive sense on what to expect when engaging as a scholar considering that it helped in providing me with the exposure that I expect in building my understanding. Additionally, the report also worked effectively in ensuring that I am able to deliver on set out goals I working as a scholar.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The number of homeless veterans is increasing at a significant rate in the United States. That has raised a fundamental concept on matters of health with the focus being towards understanding how these veterans would be able to access quality health care services. One of the critical area of focus that health professionals have sought to underlying is promoting health literacy as a way of ensuring that these veterans have a clear understanding of their varied health needs. Health literacy is one of the critical aspects that promote effective health outcomes for veterans attributed to the high demands for a wide array of healthcare services (Sleath et al., 2006). Lack of a proper platform from which to promote health literacy among homeless veterans has created a situation where the health decisions made do not seem to cover the varied health demands for this population (Elbogen, Sullivan, Wolfe, Wagner, & Beckham, 2013). Thus, this creates the need for having to come up with an approach from which to improve health literacy as a way of advancing proper health outcomes.
On the other hand, I have also engaged in a vast reading of different scholarly materials including books, periodical, and journals. Reading materials from different sources has helped me understand my identity as a scholar from multiple perspectives. For example, this can be seen from the fact that I was able to use different sources to support my research in the report on health literacy among homeless veterans. Through reading, I would argue that I have developed a clear sense of understanding on what it means to engage as a scholar. I not only learned the value of having to establish a close relationship with other scholars but also learned the importance of trying as much as possible to focus on issues affecting the society. In other words, I learned that an essential value of a scholar is to work out solutions for some of the issues that affect the society, which acts as a guarantee that the society will become a better place.
Health literacy seeks to create an avenue from which individuals can gain a clear understanding of a wide variety of health information that would allow them to make necessary decisions. For a majority of the homeless veterans, the primary challenge experience is on the lack of productive avenues from which to access health information that would allow them to make decisions touching on their health outcomes (Sharit, Lisigurski, Andrade, Karanam, Nazi, Lewis, & Ruiz, 2014). Thus, this creates a situation where the homeless veterans face a significant risk from a health perspective, which can be traced back to a significant lack of access to health information attributed to their homeless status.
In my identity, as a practitioner, I must say that I have been engaged in a lot of research on different issues, which has provided me with firsthand experience on the challenges and issues occurring within the society. Research is important for any practitioner, as it seeks to enhance one’s ability to maintain some of the general connection on what it means to maintain overall efficiency from a practitioner perspective. Additionally, this also helps in ensuring that one is able to build on his or her ability to handle some of the underlying issues that the society is facing in one way or another. In general, it is clear that indeed researches have provided me with a front from which to interact with a wide array of researchers with the focus being towards gaining their perspective on how to handle different issues. In other words, this means that I am able to find myself in a position where it becomes much easier for me to establish a front from which to deliver on some of my set out goals as practitioner in my field of study.
The purpose of this research study is to examine the impacts that lack of proper health literacy is having on the homeless veterans. The study seeks to investigate how homeless veterans are facing a wide array of health risks, which can be attributed to the significant lack of access to avenues allowing them to access quality health information. The study will also seek to examine some of the critical areas where health professionals ought to consider in a bid to advancing health literacy for the homeless population in the country. The study will focus on evaluating some of the critical factors of consideration towards promoting health literacy among homeless veterans with the focus being towards creating that avenue from which to improve on the health for this population.
The engagement in most of these researches was aimed at creating a front from where I would be able to develop a professional identity, as a practitioner, which would drive my ambition towards making the society a better place. Additionally, I have been able to interact and engage with some of the well-known practitioners in the medical field as part of my research projects. My interaction with other practitioners has been driven by the need for me to understand how they approach some of the key issues or challenges that they encounter as part of their service delivery approaches. The practitioners have helped in advancing my understanding on what it means to reflect and deal with key issues in the society. The engagements have provided me with a new understanding of what it means to become a practitioner, which I believe has helped in forming part of my identity. I tend to believe that the critical role of a practitioner is to help alleviate the suffering of others through commitment and sacrifice. My identity, as a practitioner, adopts the two elements that drive my ambition to achieve set out goals.
Lastly, my identity, as a leader, has been shaped by the fact that part of my learning process focused on building on my leadership capacities. One of the key strengths that I consider myself as having is leadership, which I believe would help create that front from where I would be able to achieve some of my set out goals and objectives. Thus, it was important for me to come up with strategic approaches that sought to advance my position from a leadership perspective. I learned that leadership is a critical aspect that I must be able to adopt from a professional perspective considering that I would be expected to work in different environments that may require some of these skills.
My advancement as a scholar and a practitioner will be determined by my ability to channel my leadership skills with the focus being towards creating a progressive path towards advanced performance. For me to be able to work as an effective scholar or practitioner, I held the view that it was important for me to focus on my building my position as a leader. That is a key area that I have focused much of my attention in ensuring that I achieve set outcomes. Throughout my learning, I developed that proactive understanding on what it means to engage as a leader while reflecting on the fact that this would create that platform from which to improve on my abilities to meet set out goals and objectives.
References
Elbogen, E. B., Sullivan, C. P., Wolfe, J., Wagner, H. R., & Beckham, J. C. (2013). Homelessness and money mismanagement in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. American journal of public health , 103 (S2), S248-S254.
Sharit, J., Lisigurski, M., Andrade, A. D., Karanam, C., Nazi, K. M., Lewis, J. R., & Ruiz, J. G. (2014). The roles of health literacy, numeracy, and graph literacy on the usability of the VA's health record by veterans. Journal of Usability Studies , 9 (4), 173-193.
Sleath, B. L., Jackson, E., Thomas, K. C., Galloway, J., Dumain, L., Thorpe, J., ... & Morrissey, J. (2006). Literacy and perceived barriers to medication taking among homeless mothers and their children. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy , 63 (4), 346-351.
