Equity-Centered Approaches to Clinical Care

Dr. Thandi Ndlovu Discusses Lessons Learned from GlobeMed

Individual clinical care and community-based public health might seem fundamentally different in many ways, from methodology to even aspects of their underlying mission. However, there are many learnings these two worlds can take from each other. Last month, I spoke with GlobeMed at Rutgers alum Dr. T. Thandi Ndlovu, a pediatric resident at Texas Children’s Hospital, to discuss how GlobeMed’s approach of centering communities and reciprocity taught her important lessons for her career in medicine.

1. “I learned so much about the type of healthcare, both here and abroad, that I wanted to provide.”

As a sophomore at Rutgers, Thandi was drawn to GlobeMed because she wasn’t being pushed by her school’s public health curriculum in the way she wanted to be. However, GlobeMed combined her interests in public health and international development in a conscientious and challenging way. She got more deeply involved her junior and senior year: joining e-board, eventually becoming co-president, and becoming a GrassRoots On-site Work (GROW) intern with GlobeMed at Rutgers’s then-partner organization, Cooperation for Social Services and Development in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Thandi recalls that GlobeMed’s mission gave a larger purpose to what she was learning in her pre-med classes, helping to build the foundation of her global health interests. “[It] allowed me to see what was out there and what I could accomplish while still being a college student,” she says. “I learned so much about the type of healthcare, both here and abroad, that I wanted to provide.”

2. “GlobeMed set the tone for how I interact with my patients.”

“Working with grassroots organizations at GlobeMed, you learn how to really center communities and center more than one individual,” Thandi says. To her, GlobeMed emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to both personal and population health. Through GlobeMed programming such as ghU, students discuss the importance of social determinants of health and examine global health issues from every angle. “I am a pediatric resident, so I’m working with families all the time, and you’re not just focused on the patient as an individual, you’re focused on their whole network,” Thandi says.

Now, she continues to use these skills as she evaluates patients at her job. Taking that extra step to learn about her patients’ lives outside their illness — for example, considering what outside circumstances might be exacerbating the clinical issue and working to involve support networks in the child’s care — is central to how she provides effective and compassionate care. “Having that mindset and having those experiences of looking towards networks or gaps in care has really helped me as a pediatric resident.”

3. “Everyone can be your teacher.”

“You can always learn something from the people around you,” Thandi says.

She highlights her involvement with the network outside her chapter as critical to her time in GlobeMed — attending Hilltops and Summit, engaging with GlobeMed HQ, and meeting students from other chapters. It was invigorating to be around other students who were excited about the same issues she was, and it led to so many opportunities for them to learn from each other. Additionally, attending conferences like Summit and Hilltop helped Thandi cultivate her networking skills and learn to navigate the world of public health.

Now, she uses those professional and listening skills all the time at her job. “As a leader, you should be listening to everybody at the table, not just the person with the highest title or the most experience.”

Throughout her time in GlobeMed, Thandi had many valuable experiences and learnings that contributed greatly to her understanding of equity and healthcare. Whether it comes to individual clinical care or population-level health, she knows that values of community-building and reciprocity are important for ensuring equitable outcomes. Looking ahead, she’s excited to continue spreading these values and using these skills in her practice, and she hopes future GlobeMed students will do the same.