UNT student one of seven students selected for summer internship at Parkland Hospital

Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - 16:58
Category:

DENTON (UNT), Texas -- When University of North Texas political science major Zehra Hussain began participating in Model United Nations during her freshman year in high school, she realized how citizens in smaller, less developed nations have few resources for advocating for better healthcare.

"I decided I wanted to do a medical tract in college, but beyond the scope of clinical work. Combining my passion for politics with my desire to medically provide aid to those who are suffering globally creates my ideal career path," Hussain said. She is also minoring in medical anthropology and is taking courses to prepare her for physician assistant training in graduate school. 

Hussain hopes to learn more about barriers in communication between health care workers and those they serve from different ethnic groups this summer during Parkland Hospital's Auxiliary Collegiate Fellows Program. She was one of seven students chosen from more than 60 qualified applicants for the program, which provides paid internships. Hussain will work 40 hours a week from the first week of June through the first week of August in a non-clinical setting in the hospital.

"It's more about learning hospital management and less about patient care," said Hussain, who was a volunteer intern at Children's Medical Center in Dallas last summer. "I was always attracted to Parkland because it's Dallas' public hospital, and medicine is very political. You have to understand how it works on an administrative level before you can understand how to best serve patients."

Hussain is a 2014 graduate of Uplift North Hills Preparatory School in Irving. She  attended the American International School in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for eighth, ninth and 10th grades.

Hussain is attending UNT on a Terry Scholarship, which provides undergraduates who achieved high academic honors and leadership potential in high school with sufficient assistance to cover tuition, books, fees and reasonable living expenses on campus for up to eight full semesters. She is in the Honors College and conducted research on communication between patients and physicians as part of an Honors College class. She presented the research at UNT's annual University Scholars Day earlier this month.

"When I was at Children's Medical Center, I could see how different cultures of the patients' families resulted in barriers to understanding doctors, and doctors' explanations to them," she said.

Hussain has continued in Model United Nations as a UNT student and is the current vice president for the organization. She is also a member of the Muslim Student Organization, Medically Dedicated Students Organization and Pre-Physician Assistant Club.

After graduating from UNT, Hussain plans to earn a master's degree in public health while also completing physician assistant training. Her dream job is to work for the World Health Organization or another organization that provides medical aid internationally, after first gaining experience by working for a healthcare organization in the U.S.

UNT News Service
News_Service@unt.edu
(940) 565-2108