Q&A with Kam Inguito '18

I was a senior at Tower Hill when the school added an economics class with Mrs. Carlozzi. That was my first introduction to economics, and I absolutely loved the class. Of course a lot of classes have applications to real life, but in this class I saw a clear application to what I could do in the future. I gained a love of economics and an interest in that class. That’s why I decided to major in it, even though it might not be a direct relation to my pre-medicine route. I found that my dream job could be working as a doctor and starting my own private practice. Having the business aspect along with the health care aspect—that’s what I want to do, and that’s how I’m seeing my major fit into my career goal as a doctor.

There were several reasons. I’ve always had an influence from my family members. Both my mother and father are in health care—my dad’s a doctor and my mom’s a nurse. Actually in high school I thought I did not want to be in the health field, but senior year at Tower Hill, I tore my ACL during football, and that injury was something that I of course wasn’t happy about, but it was through that that I was exposed to many health care professionals. I got to learn about the surgeon who did my procedure and how he does his job, and I also saw how the nurses and physical therapists work together as a team. I was able to understand how important the health industry is and how big an impact they made on me. That was the biggest thing. Another thing that I learned about myself was, when I graduated from Tower Hill I was pretty overweight, and my first two years of college I knew I wanted to get healthier through diet and exercise, and I was able to lose close to 100 pounds and see the positive impacts of living a healthier lifestyle. That made me realize how important diet and exercise are, and I realized that could help me relate to people in the future.

At the Urgent Care I do a wide range of tasks. I work the front desk, where I take calls, sign patients in and schedule them into the system. With my position I can’t give health advice—that of course has to go through the providers. I also triage patients, so I ask them questions about their health history and any current medical problems, and then I also ask them why they’re here. During this triaging process I also get their vitals—their BMI, blood pressure, oxygen saturation levels, their pulse—anything that’s important that if it’s way out of the ordinary I can let a provider know right away. My other main position is I run various tests; right now that’s a lot of COVID testing, as well as strep tests, flu tests, urinalysis and other tests. Right now I’m working there about 25-30 hours a week, whenever I can fit it into my schedule around classes.

I’m keeping my mind open. Right now, just because of my current job at Urgent Care, I am interested in emergency medicine. With this job I’ve learned that it’s not constant, and it’s definitely not predictable. And what I mean by that is we could have three patients come in within 10 minutes, and all three could have three different needs, and I love being in an environment where we have to think quickly, adapt, solve problems and help patients with their different health issues. 

This past year has definitely been a whirlwind. It’s been hard not being able to have in-person classes. As an economics major all of my classes have been online. All my classes for the spring semester are going to be online, and for the fall I’m hopeful we’ll be back in-person. I was on the luckier side in that I wasn’t an incoming freshman who missed out on their freshman dorm experience. It’s been hard to connect with people on Zoom, and of course when I do meet up with my friends in person we have to be safe. Since my classes are all online, it’s been kind of hard to get that college experience, but I’m involved with student organizations on campus, one of them being the Filipino Student Association. Seeing other Filipino students on campus is important to me to learn more about my culture.