MedEx Day Five

Today was very eye opening. We started off the day with a college survival guide. Even though I have already completed a year of college, I was able to realize that I seemed to be on the right track in terms of planning out my courses beforehand, and having a work-life balance. I could use a little more "life" balancing, but overall I think I handled everything well for my first year, and I hope to improve during my sophomore year. After this, we then heard about what our "Great Collaboration" project will be about. I am actually very interested in my topic, which is gender affirming care in minors. I understand this is a very contentious topic in healthcare, so it will be interesting to find out more research on it, and hear both sides of the argument. I also didn't realize just how difficult, yet important, bioethics is within healthcare. It's almost impossible to make everyone happy, but extremely important decisions are made based on possibly little information, and it all comes down to what people think would make the most positive impact. I'm not sure I could handle the weight of these decisions, but I have so much respect for those who do! Additionally, I had no idea that the process of distrubuting medication to those in need during COVID was such an issue, and I am awe-inspired by the medical proffessionals who had to handle the lack of resources and deaths that were never meant to occur.

We then heard an online presentation on a career in CVT, which actually was very interesting! I really enjoyed looking at the various example cases, and actually learning about the cardiovascular system a bit! Some of it I actually learned in Biology Lab, so it was amazing to actually see how to utilize the information from this past semester in a career like CVT!

After lunch, we learned about medical terminology and certifications, which I know will be extremely helpful in knowing what is going on in the clincal setting a little bit! I realized that I knew some of the roots, prefixes, adn suffixes beforehand, but some I actually learned during the lecture! After this, we heard from nutriotionist Annie Anderson on what our numbers may mean from the HRA screening, and what we can do to help make them better and prevent diseases like diabetes. Because mine were higher than I would have hoped, this talk was extremely important! I learned that I DEFINITLEY need to take time out my schedule to exercise, and that I also need to supplement less healthy food with foods that are more nutriotional, which is easier than I originally thought. I had always thought that it would be almost impossible to eat nutritious and healthy food during college, but when she explained the cheap and easy options available, I realized that it was possible!

We then heard from one our interns, Devki, on why we should eat beans on toast. Although it was a silly topic/presentation, I felt as though we were able to learn more and get closer to our tier leaders. We also had some friendly debate, which is always fun!

We then learned about something that turned out to be unexpectedly important: patient connections and AIDET. I had been so busy thinking about how to make it to my location on time and meeting with my physician, but I failed to realize that I would ACTUALLY be interacting with patients in potentially their most vulnerable moments. I will need to know how to effectively communicate with them, which I feel like AIDET makes super easy and less stressful! It was helpful to practice AIDET with other tiermates to make it feel more natural, as well as watch volunteers practice it. I feel as though this tool will not only be helpful in clincal scenarios, but I realize it can also come in handy with interviews in the future!