Refugee Spotlight

A Doctor from Somali Re-enters the Medical Field

By Kerry Foley

Mariam is a Somali refugee who came to America in 1999 with her husband and six children. After some prodding by her daughter, last year Mariam decided to seek career counseling from the Somali Community Center of Nashville (SCCN). She was finally ready to talk about reclaiming her career.

Mariam had received her medical degree from the University of Rome, La Sapienza. She then returned to Somalia, where she was a pediatrician at a Mogadishu hospital and a private clinic. To escape civil unrest she fled with her family to Cairo. As a refugee, Mariam volunteered for a community organization, helping Somalis during their medical appointments.

After arriving in the United States, Mariam experienced vision problems and was diagnosed with retinal detachment. It took a few years to improve her vision to the point where she could begin working again. But without a license to practice medicine in the United States, Mariam had not worked since her arrival. Mariam had become desperate enough that she had begun to consider returning home to Somalia, to work, even though it was unsafe.

As SCCN’s program coordinator for an ORR-funded Ethnic Community Self-Help project, I helped Mariam return to the medical field. I talked with her about what type of job she wanted and helped her create a résumé. Mariam had a passion for medicine and wanted a job in the medical field. So I helped her look into job opportunities at Vanderbilt Medical Center and Hospital.

One hurdle remained, however: she wasn’t confident about her English abilities. SCCN held mock interviews to familiarize Mariam with key terms, practice delivering her answers and increase her self-confidence.

In August 2007 SCCN met representatives from Vine Hill Community Clinic (a Vanderbilt-affiliated medical clinic in Nashville ) to talk about a birthing program they had set up for Somali refugees. This meeting marked the beginning of a collaboration. The clinic was looking for a medical assistant and a lab technician and was excited by the prospect of hiring native speakers. Mariam and another client, a Sudanese lab technician, were hired.

Mariam is now working as a medical assistant at the Vine Hill Clinic. She is happy to be using her medical knowledge once again and is grateful that the Somali Community Center of Nashville has helped her find a job that provides medical insurance for her family.

Visit the Somali Community Center of Nashville here