Student Blogs

Weeks 5 and 6: Recap and halfway point

July 9th, 2013 etcare14

Hey friends,

Sorry about the delay from the last post, the 4th’s shortened work week led to cramming work in before I left, and I didn’t get a chance to update the blog.

Last week was a fun one for me, as I spent Tuesday in the cardiac ICU, which was cool. Another intern and I went on rounds with the doctors and residents of the unit, which was a great learning experience. I had enough anatomy knowledge and acquired medical understanding from this internship to piece together what they were talking about for the most part. We looked on at a lot of EKG scans, which I was somewhat able to read by the end of the day. I learned about the different types of cardiac events and how they present themselves on EKG exams. These events were encouraging to me, and reminded me that I have learned a lot so far at this internship. We also met a doctor from Fairfield University, and we had an interesting chat about being premed, medical school, and Jesuit education.

I spent Wednesday of last week with my physician when he was on call, handling a number of different procedures back to back. Not only did I enjoy seeing a few different things in one day, I also liked the idea of being able to help people in various ways, not just through one procedure. We had a busy and exciting day. Again, long days on our feet, but very rewarding.

My long weekend at home was fun. I spent the 4th playing wiffleball, barbequing with my family and grandfather at home, and then going to another cookout at a friend’s house. I did some work on my research, and then went to the beach on Saturday. Overall it was nice to be home for a while, relax, and see some friends.

Coming back for week 6, it is amazing to think that I am halfway done with this exciting internship. Even more interesting and exciting was my day on Monday, which I spent in the labor and delivery department. I got to see a baby girl being born, which was truly beautiful. It was amazing to see someone literally seconds old. Overall, it was a fun day that I definitely enjoyed. Joining in the joy of everyone in the room was remarkable.

I spent today working on my research, compiling my findings and statistics into a paper. Our project is compiling data on component separation, a relatively new technique of complex hernia repair. I have been looking at demographics, outcomes, and finding out what types of patients tolerate the complex and lengthy procedure best. I have been using many of the lessons I learned in biostatistics in the fall as I write my paper, which is just another of the many ways my Holy Cross education has prepared me well for this internship.

Overall, its been a fun last few weeks. I’ll keep you posted as the week goes on.

Stay tuned,

ETC

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