Victoria Hickman always thought she’d work on the clinical side of health care, but her path changed after she witnessed medical malpractice first hand. After undergoing surgery to repair broken bones in her foot, Hickman’s grandmother suffered from neglect and poor medical treatment. During her post-operative care, she was transferred to a rehabilitation center where she experienced bed sores, malnutrition, and eventually contracted gangrene in her foot.
“After witnessing the lack of proper care and blindness towards basic patient rights, I realized it was not simply just the clinical staff in the wrong, but management,” says Hickman, who decided that in order to make change in the health care system, she needed to be on the administration side. “The mistreatment resulted in the death of my grandmother but ultimately led me to my current career path to ensure no family goes through the same pain.”