If nurse practitioner Laura Ahn had her way, she and her Obstetrics and Gynecology patients would meet in a café. A women’s health nurse practitioner at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Dublin Center, Ahn finds connecting with women and learning about their lives to be the most enjoyable part of her workday.
“Every woman who comes into my office has a story to tell,” says Ahn in her PAMF profile video.
She finds the most rewarding part of her job to be caring for patients as they move from teen years through menopause and beyond. In particular, she enjoys helping women move through their pregnancies and become mothers.
“They’re going through this metamorphosis,” Ahn says. “All my pregnant women are beautiful.”
For Nancy Pham-Thomas, M.D., an Obstetrics and Gynecology doctor at PAMF’s Dublin Center, patients are not appointment times or diseases – they are first and foremost people in her community.
“I live a few minutes from work…I see my patients at the grocery store, at the parks and the farmer’s market,” she says. “My children will probably go to the same schools.”
One in eight women in the Bay Area is diagnosed with breast cancer. Runi Chattopadhyay, M.D., knows how overwhelming the news of a new diagnosis can be.
A PAMF surgical oncologist at the Palo Alto Center with special training in breast cancer surgery and a regular volunteer at Breast Cancer Connections, Dr. Chattopadhyay says she feels very fortunate to be able to guide women through a difficult time and provide support and counsel.
In a perfect world, people wouldn’t want to exert power or control over one another. Unfortunately, the reality is that power dynamics exist in every aspect of our lives. These power structures are based on gender, ethnicity, class, age, immigration status, and many other factors.
Because these power structures pervade our society, some people feel as if they cannot have as much control over their own lives as they wish. For example, in a patriarchal society, women may not feel as if they can independently make all of the life decisions that they want. This gender-based dynamic is made even more complex when a woman’s immigration status, educational background, income level and marital status are added to the mix.
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