Giving Voice: What I learned as a summer fellow at Oasis Free Clinics

By Sage Tonomura-MacDonald, Oasis Summer Fellow

This summer, I had the opportunity to work as a fellow at Oasis Free Clinics in Brunswick, a no-cost health-care clinic supporting communities in need in Midcoast Maine. Oasis offers free medical, dental and vision care to members of our community who have nowhere else to turn, filling a critical gap in the community’s safety net.

As a summer fellow, I came into the clinic with projects that looked a little different from the day-to-day work of the providers, staff and volunteers at Oasis. My role was to analyze clinic data, including patient visits, cancellations and no-shows, to identify patterns that could help Oasis improve access to care. Initially, my project sounded straightforward: crunch numbers, find trends and propose solutions. I quickly learned that working with real-world data is messier than it seems in textbooks or the classroom.

My initial instinct was to move fast. I imagined creating models, drawing conclusions and proposing solutions that would help the clinic redesign its approach to patient outreach. I was eager to solve problems, some of which I wasn’t even sure existed yet. But my supervisor, Anita Ruff, executive director of the clinic, encouraged me to approach things differently. Rather than rushing to solutions, she encouraged me to slow down, take smaller steps and resist the temptation to jump to solutions before fully understanding the problem.

Instead of rushing, I learned to pause. To sit with incomplete data. To explore the nuances in no-show patterns before assuming what they meant. To recognize when a trend might reflect a deeper structural issue and when it might just be noise. This shift in perspective was difficult at first, as it can be uncomfortable to admit that you don’t yet know the answer. But throughout my summer at Oasis, I began to see the value in pausing, rather than the quick fix.

This lesson extended far beyond my spreadsheets and graphs. Oasis itself embodies the practice of patience and reflection in its approach to care. One of my most memorable experiences of the summer was attending a board meeting in which the members were working on revising the clinic’s mission statement. The conversation revealed a difference in perspective between board members, whose job it is to see Oasis through the lens of budget, strategy and growth, and staff members, who interact with patients face-to-face every day.

It was clear that the two groups didn’t always view patients the same way. What helped bridge the gap between groups was the stories shared by providers at the meeting describing real accounts of patients navigating complex challenges and resilience. These stories grounded the discussion, reminding everyone that behind numbers and policies there are individuals whose lives don’t necessarily fit neatly into a mission statement.