Grace Purvis ’22
Hi! My name is Grace Purvis, and I am a rising senior at Providence College, where I am a Biology and Global Studies double major, with a minor in Public and Community Service. For a long time, I have always known I have wanted to pursue a career in healthcare. However, it wasn’t until volunteering at a clinic in downtown Providence, taking Health Policy & Management courses at PC, and spending the past year working in an Emergency Department in my hometown that I realized I also have an interest in research in healthcare.
That said, the goal of my project was to investigate organizations/clinics that provide women’s healthcare services for unauthorized immigrants in the Providence area. While the research project began with the intent to look through the lens of women’s healthcare services, I have since expanded the goal, primarily since most of the organizations and clinics I have been investigating provide a wider variety of services. The organizations/clinics under investigation are Clinica Esperanza, Rhode Island Free Clinic, Providence Planned Parenthood, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, and Women’s Medicine Collaborative through Lifespan.
Since starting my research in mid-June, I have learned more about the complexity of why our healthcare system fails specific populations. I have spent my time reading published literature, reading books surrounding the topic, watching documentaries/films, and investigating local organizations. From this, I have traced the source of these failures back to six factors. While there can be an expansion on more aspects, from my investigation, I have found the following to be factors of significance in harming overall access/utilization of healthcare services. These factors are:
- immigration status
- language barrier
- cultural barrier
- fear of deportation (as a result of harsh, anti-immigrant policies)
- financial constraints
- unknowingness of where healthcare service locations are
These factors, acting in unison, play a significant role in the healthcare disparities we see in our country today.
Rhode Island, specifically, has a vibrant immigrant population. While the immigrant population is constantly changing, as of 2020, 1 in 8 Rhode Islanders is an immigrant. While most of this population are naturalized citizens, at around 81%, the remaining 19% are unauthorized (American Immigrant Council, 2020). These facts under consideration bring to the spotlight the role of free clinics in the area. As a brief overview, free-clinics function from funding obtained from donations, fund-raising, and grant support (Ghazal, 2018). The U.S healthcare system is known for being the costliest system globally that does not guarantee service to all Americans, which is why free clinics exist to try to bridge the gap and provide care for those who otherwise would not.
As stated above, I have come to various conclusions, yet I believe one of the most pivotal lies in the complication in the system itself. I have noticed the challenges in finding locations that provide services without consideration of immigration status. Further, upon finding locations, a barrier exists through the difficulty of establishing a line of helpful communication. This research project aimed to map out locations that provide healthcare services to Americans, despite immigration status. While I have confirmed some locations that provide these services, such as Clinica Esperanza and Planned Parenthood, I have not confirmed or denied the other organizations under investigation due to difficulty in communication.
This report will take the form of an investigative research paper, with aspects of a literature review, as I have utilized many outside sources to aid my understanding of this topic. The books I have read throughout this process include The Undocumented Americans, by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. I cannot recommend both books more, as they both raise such essential and, in many ways, discomforting topics that need to be discussed more. My greatest appreciation goes out to both of these authors. I have recently begun to read Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, by Jose Antonio Vargas, which I have been looking forward to reading. In regard to my report, I have drafted an outline and am currently in the early stages of beginning the writing process. I have a few more conversations that have yet to take place that I will facilitate in the coming weeks, including one of the volunteer coordinators at Clinica Esperanza and one of the Chief Executive Officers at Rhode Island Free Clinic.
My greatest appreciation goes to Dr. Tuba Agartan, of the Department of Health Policy and Management, for agreeing to be my mentor and for the immense help throughout this process. In addition, with tremendous gratitude, I would like to thank the Providence College Undergraduate Research Program Committee for allowing me to explore a topic of great interest to me on a deeper level.
Utilized Sources:
American Immigration Council. (2020, August 6th). Immigrants in Rhode Island.
https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-rhode-island
Ghazal, M. (2018, May 23rd). Free Clinics and the Need for Nursing Action in Uncertain Political Times. Sage Publications.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527154418777864
