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John Ukadike is a Little Rock Household Medication resident doctor on the College of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ (UAMS). He is additionally a proud alum of the Fay W. Boozman Faculty of Public Well being Grasp of Public Well being program.
| John Ukadike, D.O., MPH, is a Little Rock Household Medication resident doctor on the College of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ (UAMS).
He’s a product of the UAMS Fay W. Boozman Faculty of Public Well being’s Grasp of Public Well being (MPH) program. Ukadike later went to the New York Institute of Know-how, the place he earned his doctorate. He appreciates how the MPH curriculum helped place him to in the end observe drugs.
“My expertise within the Faculty of Public Well being was incredible,” Ukadike mentioned. “I used to be lucky to take the general public well being regulation class taught by Kevin Ryan J.D., MA, affiliate dean for Pupil and Alumni Affairs, throughout my first 12 months in this system. That was vital for me. The rapport he and I developed nonetheless helps me loads. College like him made my expertise within the faculty nice.”
Ukadike additionally appreciated how the school’s instructors had real-life public well being experiences that influenced how they taught and led analysis tasks. Ukadike mentioned it added a real ingredient to the information they offered.
“My public well being training opened my eyes to quite a few conditions which can be additionally related to my scientific observe at the moment,” Ukadike mentioned. “The school uncovered me to so many realities that individuals face. It helps me contemplate the entire particular person when practising — slightly than simply drugs alone.”
As for hardships, they hit near residence for Ukadike.
At present, his dad is a psychological counselor on the College of Arkansas-Little Rock and his mother is the director of training and communications for the UAMS Division of Household and Preventive Medication. Nevertheless, earlier than Ukadike’s dad and mom achieved their success, they needed to overcome their justifiable share of difficulties.
His father is from Nigeria and grew up with out working water. His dad additionally lived by way of the Nigerian civil warfare throughout which he noticed kids ravenous within the streets. As for Ukadike’s mother, she’s a local of rural Northeast Arkansas and was raised in a dilapidated home that leaked badly and had warmth in just one room.
Understanding how his dad and mom lived once they have been younger, evokes Ukadike to all the time present a serving to hand to folks in want — particularly if kids are concerned.
“Each of my dad and mom emerged from a background of poverty,” he mentioned. “For me, the mix of being biracial and listening to tales of the battle my dad and mom went by way of made me inquisitive about how I may assist to enhance issues for Arkansans. Folks want alternatives. With my background in public well being and drugs, my objective is to place myself ready to result in widespread change on a inhabitants degree.”
Ukadike’s curiosity in public well being grew from his dad and mom’ life experiences.
“My want to assist others began at a younger age,” he mentioned. “Being so near the medical area, mixed with rising up with an African father and a white mom — each of whom had seen and skilled robust instances — in hindsight, that every one helped me uncover my curiosity in public well being.”
After finishing his undergraduate training on the College of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Ukadike — who’s a group drugs liaison for his residency program — returned residence to Central Arkansas. He enrolled within the MPH program, which he says supplied him with unimaginable alternatives.
“Working to get the Grasp of Public Well being diploma put me in place to serve,” he mentioned. “It was a satisfying expertise. We studied and went out and did issues to assist folks. We registered folks to vote. We helped with housing, renting rights. We have been actually working to deal with the general public well being conditions we have been studying about.”
For medical college students, getting into this system to additionally get the MPH is right, Ukadike added.
“If you happen to go to UAMS for medical faculty, I strongly counsel the twin observe program to get the MPH to go together with it,” he mentioned. “This system helps you achieve an understanding of the completely different inhabitants teams that you could be not have a lot expertise working with, going into med faculty. That broadens your horizons and makes you a greater doctor.”
