Awkward situation with volunteering

[TheLadyVanishes]

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I've started clinical volunteering with an underserved group (I'm purposefully leaving out any identifying details). I'm hoping to work with the medically underserved and disadvantaged and so this volunteer activity is meaningful to me and I have the opportunity to learn a lot.
However, there are a fair amount of people influential in this community who are anti-medicine and anti-science in a way that I can't accept. On one level I understand, because they have not been treated well historically by the medical profession. In the end, I fear that willful ignorance will only lead to more suffering and poor health outcomes. Soon I will be leaving the current group that I'm with and volunteering with a healthcare focused group that collaborates with health professionals to improve the existing relationship between this underserved population and the medical field.
I'm ok with it in that 1.) it's been eye-opening for me to understand the grievances that disadvantaged populations have against the medical field, 2.) a lot of patients can be anti-medicine, too and I have seen firsthand that it is an "art" to handle these patients!

How do I handle working or being associated with a group that does not share a lot of my beliefs?
-To be perfectly honest, I'm a little worried about how this will look on an application and that I will be perceived as anti-science or anti-medicine by an adcom. I'm hoping to frame my disagreement in a positive way.
- Has anyone else been in this situation? I find it hard to bite my tongue when I hear outright lies and myths being bandied about, but at the same time as a newcomer and a relative outsider I'm a "guest" in their space so I want to be respectful. When I've politely offered different opinions, I have sometimes gotten extremely hostile responses. But on the other hand it's incredibly frustrating to listen to this stuff and I don't think it's helping anyone!

Thanks!

 

[PMPMD]

I've started clinical volunteering with an underserved group (I'm purposefully leaving out any identifying details). I'm hoping to work with the medically underserved and disadvantaged and so this volunteer activity is meaningful to me and I have the opportunity to learn a lot.
However, there are a fair amount of people influential in this community who are anti-medicine and anti-science in a way that I can't accept. On one level I understand, because they have not been treated well historically by the medical profession. In the end, I fear that willful ignorance will only lead to more suffering and poor health outcomes. Soon I will be leaving the current group that I'm with and volunteering with a healthcare focused group that collaborates with health professionals to improve the existing relationship between this underserved population and the medical field.
I'm ok with it in that 1.) it's been eye-opening for me to understand the grievances that disadvantaged populations have against the medical field, 2.) a lot of patients can be anti-medicine, too and I have seen firsthand that it is an "art" to handle these patients!

How do I handle working or being associated with a group that does not share a lot of my beliefs?
-To be perfectly honest, I'm a little worried about how this will look on an application and that I will be perceived as anti-science or anti-medicine by an adcom. I'm hoping to frame my disagreement in a positive way.
- Has anyone else been in this situation? I find it hard to bite my tongue when I hear outright lies and myths being bandied about, but at the same time as a newcomer and a relative outsider I'm a "guest" in their space so I want to be respectful. When I've politely offered different opinions, I have sometimes gotten extremely hostile responses. But on the other hand it's incredibly frustrating to listen to this stuff and I don't think it's helping anyone!

Thanks!

I think it's a good experience. I've had patients who were "anti-medicine and anti-science." Part of being a physician is respecting viewpoints which are counter to your own, and even those which you frankly disagree with.

 

[galaxyx]

Try not to make an enemy of yourself early on.

If you are able to become friendly with leaders of the community through mutual respect, then you can have friendly and respectful debates with the leaders. This will allow you to personally feel better about not ignoring the myths, while also not making enemies of every individual in the community.

If you are working with a group that is trying to bridge the gap between the underserved community and health practitioners, how can this reflect poorly upon you? If you are working to counteract a problem, I don't think you would be "tagged" as the problem.