Jessica Fields was still working on her bachelor’s degree in biology – she’s now a third-year medical student at the Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV – when she received a telephone call from her mother that terrified her.
Then a student at the University of Redlands in California, Fields was on a holiday break in her hometown of Las Vegas when the phone call came in from the Summerlin Hospital Medical Center Emergency Room.
“She called me in a panic, crying, telling me to meet her at the hospital,” Fields says of her mother, currently a high school assistant principal. “I could barely understand what she was saying … I was led to my mom and saw her hooked up to various blinking machines. The doctor came in and told my mom and me that her blood pressure was critically elevated at 220/137 and at danger for a stroke. I felt helpless for my mom and wished that I could do more than hold her hand and be a positive force.”
That experience, which further cemented Fields’ determination to become a physician, also reinforced how she believed physicians and medical teams should relate to patients.
“The doctors and nurses made us feel at ease and explained the various tests and medications given to lower her blood pressure,” Fields recalls. “I appreciated receiving data, information, and empathy from the hospital staff and vowed to do the same when I will be on the other side of the gurney.”
The more you talk with Fields – she recently began the clinical portion of her medical school training where she actually gets to work with patients – the more it is apparent that she believes the doctor-patient relationship is critical to patients having trust in the medical profession. Without that trust, she says patients are less likely to follow prescriptive instructions that can produce successful medical outcomes.
At Desert Orthopaedic Center in Las Vegas, she says shadowing orthopedic surgeon Dr. Archie Perry gave her invaluable insight into what doctor-patient relationships should be.
“What stood out to me was how he treated patients as friends, as people who he truly cares about, and not just a patient. He always kept eye contact, asked about their day, and made sure his patients were fully aware of what was wrong with them and what steps they can take in dealing with their challenges. I recall his interaction with a young man suffering severe scoliosis. Dr. Perry explained the patient’s complex spinal X-ray in a manner and context where the patient was able to understand. I saw how important it was for the young man to understand his medical condition and be able to ask questions. I aim to emulate this type of communication.”
While touring an emergency department at Loma Linda Medical Center in California, Fields saw another approach to dealing with patients.
“I saw what the doctors did to upset patients. Patients would become angry and frustrated when they did not know what was going on and why they were waiting for hours.”
Without honest communication, Fields says, the field of medicine can only expect to lose support from the public.
Fields first grew interested in science and medicine in the third grade. Her teacher had asked students to learn about a career that was popular in the 1800s. Fields said she “was drawn to what apothecaries did” during the early days of America and made a presentation to her class on their work wearing a hat and apron her mother found that resembled what was worn long ago by apothecaries, individuals who made medicines from minerals, plants, and herbs and sold them in their stories. Sometimes they acted as doctors, prescribing medicines for the sick.
“I found their healing people with potions and other things fascinating,” she says, noting that apothecaries have similarities to today’s pharmacists.
An anatomy and physiology class at Palo Verde High School, where she was an honor student, played a major role in her decision to major in biology in college and to pursue a career in medicine. “I had an amazing teacher and I was so in awe of learning everything our body does everyday.”
At Palo Verde, she became a standout on the track team in the hurdles, which she continued at the University of Redlands, a NCAA Division III institution. There, her finishes in the nationals won her All-America status.
“I loved the feeling in the 100 meter hurdles, not hearing anything around me, the tunnel vision I experienced as I glided over the hurdles. I miss the competition and the training… I know that the discipline that came with athletics will help me as a physician.”
Though it’s still early in her medical school journey, Fields says she is leaning toward specializing either in OB-GYN or family medicine. She is determined to do her part in reducing disparities in health care that the Institute of Medicine – after studying the differences in the kinds and quality of healthcare received by racial and ethnic minorities and non-minorities – has found, are in part, the result of bias, stereotyping, and prejudice. The CDC reports, for instance, that Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women, with structural racism, implicit bias, and variation in quality healthcare problematic.
“I want to be an advocate for women’s health, especially for women of color that have been historically mistreated,” Fields says.
