Voices of HMSOM: For Saifi, Medicine Begins With Listening

As a first-generation student who worked in healthcare throughout college, Farishta Saifi learned early about the importance of listening closely—to patients, to families, and to the moments when healthcare can fall short if communication breaks down. Growing up in Gravesend, an underserved neighborhood in Brooklyn, she learned early that medicine is about more than diagnoses and treatment plans.

Long before she entered the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Saifi served as her grandmother's caregiver through New York's Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) and often found herself helping her grandmother navigate medical appointments by translating complex information and explaining conditions in Spanish.

“I saw how overwhelming medicine can feel when it isn’t explained in a way you understand,” Saifi said. “Being able to help my grandmother made me realize how much responsibility comes with communication in healthcare.”

That early role as both caregiver and interpreter planted the seed for Saifi’s calling. It wasn’t just the science of medicine that drew her in, but the human connection—making sure patients felt informed, respected, and confident in their care.

EARLY EXPERIENCES

As Saifi progressed through her education at Kingsborough Community College and later Brooklyn College, those lessons continued to shape her path. She worked as a certified nursing assistant and home health aide, caring for patients in nursing facilities and private homes, where trust and clear communication were essential parts of daily care.

“It wasn’t just about following instructions,” she said. “It was about understanding what patients valued and how they wanted their care to look.”

Her perspective deepened further during her time as a quality improvement specialist at a community health center in Brooklyn. There, she began to notice a pattern that stayed with her: patients leaving appointments confused—not because they lacked engagement, but because medical language and communication barriers stood in the way.

“I would hear patients say things like, ‘I have hyper something,’ instead of understanding that they had high blood pressure,” Saifi recalled. “Sometimes it wasn’t a lack of care—it was a lack of clarity.”

LEARNING TO SLOW DOWN

Saifi often stepped in to help bridge those gaps, witnessing how quickly trust could form when patients felt understood. Those moments reinforced her desire to become a physician who takes the time to slow down, listen carefully, and meet patients where they are.

That commitment has followed her into her clinical training at Hackensack University Medical Center. During clerkships, Saifi has seen how small adjustments—asking a patient which language they prefer, using plain language, or involving interpretation services—can dramatically change the quality of care.

As president of the Latino Medical Student Association at Hackensack School of Medicine, she helped implement Medical Spanish events in hopes of providing her classmates with practical language skills to communicate effectively with Spanish-speaking patients.

“In fast-paced hospital settings, it’s easy to move from one patient to the next,” she said. “But taking a moment to make sure a patient truly understands can change everything.”

FINDING THE RIGHT FIT

When Saifi began exploring medical schools, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine stood out not only for its location close to family, but for its emphasis on social determinants of health through the school's Human Dimension course.

“The focus on understanding patients beyond the medical visits really resonated with me,” she said. “It reflected the kind of physician I wanted to become.”

As a nontraditional student, Saifi found that Hackensack’s smaller class size and supportive environment aligned with her values. She credits the school’s focus on wellness and mentorship with helping her navigate the academic and emotional demands of medical training.

That emphasis on balance led Saifi to take on leadership roles, including serving as co-chair of wellness for Student Government. In that role, she and her co-chair, Marina Girgis, helped implement N.I.C.O. (Nurturing, Inspiring, Compassionate, Outreach) Week, a wellness initiative held prior to exams in honor of Nicolo Belmonti, an HMSOM student and close friend of Saifi’s who passed away in 2024. Through this work, Saifi hopes other medical schools will consider adopting similar, student-led wellness initiatives to better support learners during the most demanding periods of training.

She also became deeply involved in mentoring and, through this commitment, launched a YouTube podcast called RealTalkMedSchool, where she interviews classmates to speak openly about the realities of medical school.

“I don’t believe in racing to the finish line alone,” she said. “I believe in passing the baton and getting there together.”

FULL CIRCLE

Saifi’s long-standing interest in cardiology brings her story full circle. Caring for her grandmother, who lives with heart failure, sparked a deeper fascination with the heart—not only its physiology, but the responsibility that comes with explaining complex conditions in ways patients can understand.

“That experience showed me how important it is to have someone who can translate both the language and the medicine,” she said. “It inspired me to pursue cardiology so I can be that person for my patients.”

As Match Day approaches, Saifi already knows where her journey will continue. She will remain at Hackensack University Medical Center for residency, allowing her to stay within the same system that helped shape her growth as a medical student.

“I hope my story is remembered as one of someone who defied the odds and inspires others,” she said. “I’m excited to keep growing at Hackensack as a resident physician—and to keep becoming the kind of physician who makes patients feel seen, heard, and hopeful.”