senior project mentor/volunteering XX

This is my last post about my senior project. I will be doing my presentation on Monday the 23rd. It's quite nerve racking. I have almost finished my slides for my presentation. Hopefully it's a good topic that can be understandable. I'm so nervous on how it will go. Frustration and anxiety is catching up to me. Please let this day of presentations go by smoothly.

senior project mentor/volunteering XIX

This past week I have been working on revising my research essay. Hopefully my final revision is the one. Also I have been working on my speech and many of the other portions of the project. This project is very stressful and I hope that I get a passing grade for this. I have been working very diligently on this project. Time for more revisions and work for my presentation.

senior project mentor/volunteering XVIII

So these past weeks I have been working on the written part of my senior project. It is a long process of writing and researching. The most difficult part is deciding on a good topic. I don't know how many topics had gone through my head in order to debate my point. I had finally settled on funding for medical education. Working on the essay portion is very tiring but hopefully worth it.

senior project mentor/volunteering XVII

On my final days at SF Kaiser, I had witnessed a patient in the last staged of cancer. It was a saf sight. She was in excruciating pain, which no one can help her. She had undergone a lot of treatments and yet had still been suffering. This patient had very little time to live. All the hospital can do for her now is help with the pain by giving her pain medicines. The hospice nurse had come to the ER to look at the patient and tell the family about her condition. Hopefully one day we can find a cure for cancer, so as not see this suffering of people.

senior project mentor/volunteering XVI

On my second day at the hospital, I had witnessed a very young patient that needed to be intubated. It was a very sad sight, with the patient's family there watching as their son is suffering. This patient had a consistent stroke, which was extremely painful to watch as he looked as if he was suffering. On that second day I had also witnessed a car accident case, where teenagers were in a car accident and one of the boys had broken his arm. As the tests came back from the x-ray room, it showed that his growth plates were still intact, showing that this patient was still growing. The doctor needed to critically think about the best way to deal with the situation. Thus she decided to splint the patient. She had used several ace bandages and plasters. After everything was ready she started to reduce the arm. The patient was soon released.

senior project mentor/volunteering XV

Still on my first day at Kaiser was still very interesting. One patient had been on drugs, which he had stuck an object through his anus and needed to be taken to x-ray to see what the problem was. He had stuck in a large foreign object in his body. The surgeon needed to come down to the emergency room and tell him that the foreign object needed to surgically removed from him. (That tells you to never do drugs. Drugs make you do things that you should never do.) Take the experience from this patient.

senior project mentor/volunteering XIV

On that same day with volunteering to irrigate the patient's hand another patient came into the ER. This patient had fallen and fractured her ankle. She needed to be taken to x-ray to see how crucial the matter was. In the end she had an opaque, closed fracture in her right ankle. Through the x-rays taken by the medical staff, the doctors needed to decide what to do for the patient. The orthopedics needed to reduce the leg, for the bone to properly heal. She had her leg plastered and was given wheelchair after being discharged.

senior project mentor/volunteering XIII

During my time at the hospital I learned to irrigate a patients hand. It was an interesting experience. Even though the patient was in excruciating pain his hand needed to be irrigated to prevent any infections that may affect his hand and may need to be amputated. Since this patient is a right dominate, and the injury was on the right hand, the injury has affected his working ability. Kaiser is not the hospital that can work on the hand, thus the patient needed to be transferred to another hospital.

Senior project XII

Today is May 2nd still doing research for my senior project. I will be choosing topic to write about over the week. I have been looking through researches to form my topic around the medical field. Some suggestions that I came up with is funding for schools for medical programs.

senior project mentor/volunteering XI

More in the Kaiser ER:

On my third day of volunteering and with my mentor for half the shift I felt more comfortable with helping out in the Emergency Room. I even witnessed a sad case as someone was going through the last stages of cancer. It was very sad seeing the patient in pain. I also brought back samples of x-rays, and Cat Scans. I will finish the rest of my blogs when I process all of the written and power point for my presentation. I will keep blogging during the process of writing my research papers, introduction papers, and presentation power point.

senior project mentor/volunteering X

Continue of describing my time at SF Kaiser:

On my second day I was able to witness the emergency doctors intubating a patient. It was interesting to see, since it is quite rare to see when only volunteering for a short while. While I was volunteering I learned the different equipment being used. As I volunteered I did various jobs like helping the techs transport patients and bringing materials for the doctors as they are needed for their assessments. I also learned about the different medications and their functions. Soon as I talk to the doctors I learned they did not go out much as they were in medical school. Every doctor had the same story and it influenced me to do well in my future education.

senior project mentor/volunteering IX

More about the ED:

The first day I arrived at the ED I learned how to irrigate a person's wound. It seemed very painful but through the pain the wound needs to be cleaned no matter what. When irrigating, it is to prevent any infection in the wound. The patient had to undergo many tests. When the patient's x-ray came out he had fractures and needed to be transferred to another hospital. Since I want to become a doctor in the future one of my mentor's students was able to teach me how stressful residency is when he was assessing another patient.

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Senior mentoring and volunteering in depth:

During my time at the Emergency room. Of course all information are confidential. However I can tell you the emergency room is very structured in every way. There are staff of the ED (emergency department) which are the: nurses, techs, receptionists, and of course the doctors. But every hospital is sectioned off, even the emergency department. Kaiser has the Orthopedics, ICU, and other departments within the ED. However not all the departments are close, so the patients must be transferred to another location if the current hospital does not have the department or is a small department.

senior project mentor/volunteering VII

Still in the process of working on my senior project. Have done research through books from medical and emergency room function at the library. I learned so much during my volunteer hours at the hospital. Everything is in always in a quick pace and the doctors all must be good and know what to order for the patients. Then again the nurses need to proceed with these orders and do them in exactly the right amount of time and doses, otherwise if the dosages are too much it might harm the patient. The techs always must follow the orders also just as the nurses. However the staff must always be cautious around the drug addicts.

senior project mentor/volunteering VI

Started writing the introduction letter to the board and Ms. Sobrero. I will still be working on it until the very end of the month. The introduction letter is quite difficult with having to first form my topic on how the function of the hospital emergency room functions. I have finally formed it, "The function of the emergency room is very important in the process in order to keep organization and is a strict environment because every patient is in a potential crisis of injury or death."

senior project mentor/volunteering V

Finished my hours for Senior Project for over 2 months. I will be starting the process of writing the project throughout this semester and spring break. I will be finishing the blogs as I work on the research for my essay and working through the blogs as I work through completing the project. I will keep this blog updated as I work on the project. This will not be the last blog for this project.

senior project IV volunteer/ mentoring

Today is February 6th and my final day for my hours. This will be a total of 32 hours for this project. Today was quite a slow day with the Super Bowl going on. However I was able to help by volunteering to help with splinting a patient's leg. Also to help the nurses' and doctors' jobs easier I was a able to send blood work and fetch the medical equipment for them. So far it has been an interesting sight. Today I had volunteered for 12 hours and will no longer be doing more hours.