GofundWHEE

For the past ten years, I have been cultivating a vision of how I want bring together my passions into a formal career. While I continue to seek out independent learning experiences within personal training, health coaching, yoga, herbal medicine, nutrition, and patient advocacy, I cannot think of a more perfect profession than a physician to integrate my interests and desire to help people heal themselves. After graduating Tufts Summa Cum Laude, I started working as a medical scribe, a doctor’s shadow from the first patient to the last. I document medical histories, symptoms, diagnoses, and treatments, and offer exercise and nutrition counseling when needed. I also work as a personal fitness trainer and medical transcriptionist part time. Each day I palpate a remarkable physical finding or listen to a patient or client’s sensitive pain narrative as a medical scribe and trainer, I grow more excited to build my own practice. 

My innate curiosity to understand the connection between the mind and body as well as my unquenched thirst to connect with people propels me to continue on this journey towards integrative medicine. My passions stem from my complicated family medical history, comprising multiple chronic conditions, which are positively influenced by acupuncture, herbal medicine, and lifestyle modifications. After shadowing naturopaths, osteopaths, acupuncturists, and integrative medical doctors, my desire to approach health holistically grew tremendously. I believe that we need to attend to the bidirectional relationship between each patient’s state of mind and body, and I plan on complementing my medical practice with natural approaches when appropriate and when welcomed.

For years I have independently sought out education about holistic medicine including my experience at the Holistic Health Expo in 2014, my recent coursework at The Institute of Sustainable Nutrition (which you can get a taste of on my blog) and my personal training  ongoing education and practice. Additionally, I studied traditional medicine with the School of International Teaching International Honors Program in India, Argentina, and South Africa in 2014 . When I returned to the U.S, I presented my field studies at Tuft’s Annual Research Symposium detailing each country's healthcare system, how each country integrates its "traditional" and allopathic medicine, as well as what we can learn from their strengths and weaknesses.

During the fall of 2015, I collaborated with a Tufts colleague to examine and implement a biofeedback relaxation intervention in fourth and fifth grade classrooms comprised of students with and without emotional and behavioral disorders. Since then I submitted the study to the Advances in School Mental Health Promotion Journal and presented our findings at The Tufts Institute for Innovation Symposium last April regarding the intervention’s feasibility and efficacy in full classrooms.

My experience as an intern at the Health Promotion Center in Jamaica Plain last year shed light on the incredibly disheartening experiences and disadvantages many face within our healthcare system. I played many roles within the community health center including patient advocator and healthcare navigator while also researching transit injustices in the Boston area. While listening to the patients’ many hardships from inadequate transportation to a healthcare facilities issues re-applying for coverage of a rejected insurance claim, I have become more inspired to create a practice that delivers affordable, integrative care to the people who need it most. 

My relationships with the clients I train, the freshmen in the Tufts pre-orientation groups I’ve led, the patients I see as a medical scribe, and my friends and family nourish my love for counseling and connecting with people. Whether I can offer a new perspective, an exercise regimen, a nutrition protocol, or share an empathic connection, I continue to look forward to cultivating my own medical practice one day. My “plan” is to learn as much as I can about sustainable nutrition and herbal medicine in the next 18 months, hopefully enter medical school in August of 2017, and study other natural approaches to health including acupuncture and functional medicine afterwards. We will see where my journey takes me! But first I must apply to medical school.  

WHEN: June 1st 2016

HERE’S WHERE YOU COME IN:

Applying to medical school is expensive and risky. This is not like applying to college where you can feel comforted by safety schools, which are non-existent in the medical world. Here’s a breakdown of recent money (excluding college tuition) spent just to get this far:

-MD application: $160 to one school  + $37/additional school (applying to 20 MD schools) =$863

-DO application: $195 to one school + $35/additional school (applying to 6 DO schools) =$370

-Sending transcripts – 7$ a transcript =21$ (one to each type of medical school: M.D, D.O, N.D)

-Secondary applications:

·         $100 per MD school (up to 20) =$2000

·         Average $75 per DO school (up to 6 ) =$450

·         Unfortunately secondary applications do not mean I am closer to being accepted. Almost all schools automatically send out secondaries in order to collect more fees. FUN.

----- Grand total: $3,704 (excluding college tuition, MCAT classes/test, my current classes’ tuition, and naturopathic school applications)

Any contribution will help me meet my goal to apply to  26 medical schools with the hope of making it to one! #oddsthesedays

REWARDS PRIMER: If you donate…

$20: personalized thank you card!

$50: 30 min exercise/nutrition consultation

$75: 60 min exercise/nutrition consultation

$100: 60 min exercise/nutrition consultation & stress reduction plan 

$200: two 60 min exercise/nutrition consultations & natural house cleaning supply set

$250: one month free of service from future Dr. Petrucelli

$500: two months unlimited free of service from future Dr. Petrucelli

****(skype availability for long distance)

Please include the best way to reach you (email/phone) with your donation so we can communicate rewards!

I CAN’T AFFORD TO DONATE, CAN I HELP SOME OTHER WAY?
YES! While even just a small donation would be tremendously helpful, you can also SHARE this page on your Facebook, instagram, or Twitter feed (since these social medias are basically foreign to me!)

THANK YOU SO MUCH:
- for reading this far
- for considering me
- for being born!

ps- my nickname is Whee :)