GET STARTED
1
Request Info
2
Visit
3
Apply

Merging interests in medicine, public health, and human rights

Nicole Lin, a third-year MD/MPH candidate at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, won second place for her project at the Palm Beach County Medical Society’s James J. Byrnes Future of Medicine Poster Symposium. Lin presented her project “Prevalence of Physical and Psychological Trauma in an Asylum Seeking Cohort,” on Feb. 7, 2019, alongside several medical students and residents. 

The purpose of the project was to study and quantify the levels of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse and trauma experienced by an asylum-seeking cohort encountered by the Human Rights Clinic of Miami, a topic that Lin has been interested in since before beginning her journey has an MD/MPH candidate.

“The preliminary findings of the study suggested an increasing need for screening, assessment, and intervention of mental health services to advocate for the promotion of long-term health and well-being and prevent adverse outcomes in this disadvantaged group,” Lin said.

But before beginning the MD/MPH program and participating in the poster symposium in Palm Beach County, Lin studied abroad in Sweden and volunteered in Greece, opportunities that first led her to a new-found interest in human rights.

Studying abroad in Uppsala, Sweden

When she studied abroad in Sweden, it was during a time when thousands of Syrian refugees were seeking asylum in central and northern Europe. Lin recalled that after walking through a train station in Malmo, Sweden, she became aware that the media’s portrayal of the situation was unlike what she had witnessed in person.   

“They were portrayed as people in struggle, despair, and hopelessness. Yet, as I walked through the train station, I vividly remember witnessing a very different kind of refugee scene - asylum-seeking children playing with each other, adults laughing and chattering amongst themselves, and smiles, despite it all,” Lin said.  

With passions rooted in medicine and public health, this experience led Lin to a new interest in getting to know more about their experiences.

“I became passionate about documenting individual stories and understanding the multi-faceted reality of being an asylum seeker,” Lin said. “I wanted to understand their entire story – their identity and the potential they have as contributors to society." 

With a goal to humanize and destigmatize what it meant to be a refugee, Lin soon after received a grant that enabled her to travel to Samos Island, Greece as a volunteer to help document conditions in their local refugee hotspot.

Volunteering in Samos Island, Greece

Lin’s role as a volunteer in Samos Island ranged from organizing donations, setting up a school in their refugee community to living with asylum seekers. These experiences reinforced her newly-found passion for human rights.

“I heard their perspective and stories, and helped share their voice in hopes of highlighting the diversity and talent among the asylum-seeking community,” Lin said. “Each Samos volunteer received a red and white wrist band as a symbol of this experience that will forever bond us together.”

In a journal that she kept during the experience, she wrote: 

“Red for the blood sweat tears, we shed,
White for the purest of love, we give,
May boundaries of humanity expand with our universe,
Not worn around the wrist but forever in the spirit,
On a fruit tree, growing and spreading.”  

Returning to Miami

After returning to Miami, where she had lived when she was an undergraduate student at the University of Miami, she began her studies at the Miller School of Medicine. Lin decided to combine her interests in medicine, public health, and human rights.

“I like to see my dual degree pursuits as macroscopic and microscopic lenses from which I view health. Medicine allows me to give individualized care for the single tree in the forest, while public health allows me to zoom out and understand the larger landscape and population dynamics of the entire forest, which can ultimately inform interventions that make the greatest impact,” Lin said. “It is an interdisciplinary field where innovation, humanitarianism, art, science, and policy coexist, and where issues such as climate change, human rights, and sustainable development intersect.”

While at the Miller School of Medicine, she has also served as project developer at the Human Rights Clinic of Miami and project manager of the Light of the World Health Fair, led by Mitchell Wolfson Sr. Department of Community Services, which provides healthcare to underserved populations in South Florida.

At the Human Rights Clinic of Miami, asylum-seeking persons and victims of abuse are assisted with obtaining medical affidavits that document evidence of physical and psychological human rights violations.

“Medical students, residents, and attending physicians dedicate their time and ability to provide impartial physical and psychiatric evaluations for asylum seekers and refugees in the U.S. In order to achieve a non-biased evaluation, the clinic does not provide direct patient care to its clients. Instead, it strives to connect clients to free or affordable healthcare when necessary,” Lin said.

For their third-year rotations, medical students are required to study in Palm Beach County, where they experience various clinical settings. Students also participate in the Palm Beach County Medical Society’s James J. Byrnes Future of Medicine Poster Symposium, where Lin was able to pursue her project on asylum-seekers.

“The poster symposium was eye-opening. It allowed me to see the larger community of which I was temporarily part of for the year,” Lin said. “It was inspiring to see physicians who have been serving the community for many decades come together in the spirit of continuous improvement and building cohesion within the medical community.”

As Lin will soon begin her final year in Fall 2019, she has set short and long-term goals that will enable her to continue to merge her passions.  

“I hope to enter a medical specialty centered on acute care and trauma while continuing to operate in a diverse public health scope through global health, climate change, and human rights activism,” Lin said. “My short-term goals as a student are to gain the clinical knowledge essential to becoming a competent, empathetic physician as well as a public health professional.” 

Written by Amanda Torres
Posted on May 9, 2019