MedEx Day Nine

It felt strage to be back in the Clemson Nursing Building after so much time apart, but I felt as though it was a worthwhile experience to debrief our past three days apart in clinicals. Overall, I thought that my clinical rotation went very well as I was able to see the compassionate nature of many of the providors that I was shadowing, and how it positively impacted the patient's trust and comfortability. However, I realized that I was the lucky one as many of my peers saw and heard things that I couldn't imagine. It was important to hear their stories, such as Neekan's about the death he experienced in the trauma room, as it opened my eyes up to the duality of healthcare. The career is entrenched in positive and rewarding moments, which is mostly what I experienced in my rotations, but it also comes with devastation and loss. However, the fact that Neekan still didn't seemed to be completely pushed off of trauma inspired me as it made me realize that doctors are willing to handle the emotions that come from the bad experiences as the positives of potentially saving someone's life outweigh the bad. I also was able to learn a lot about gestational diabetes from Charlotte in pregnant women, which I had never realized was a serious issues in those who are expecting.

After our reflection period, we heard from Dr. Epright on the first Ethics presentation. I wasn't expecting to find ethics as fascinating as it did, but I had realized that I often placed ethics and morality in the same sector, even when they are different as morality is more concerned with individual beliefs, whereas ethics is focused on the overarching benefit for humanity. I realized that ethics is a much more complicated issue than I anticipated as so many factors play into it, including ones religion, emotions, logic, etc. I even saw how morality plays into the laws the government makes and they claim it as "ethical". It's extremely difficult to imagine a young child being refused potentially life saving treatment due to her parents religious affiliation, but I understand the importance of respecting the wishes of the patient regardless of how irrational it may be. At the end of the day, the patient should have autonomy and it is their decision.

We then learned about the importance of getting good sleep and manging your stress well. As someone with anxiety, I fully relate to the negative impacts that having too much stress can put on your body, as well as not getting enough sleep. I realize now that I need to spend less time on my device before bed as that is likely the reason I don't get as much quality sleep. I also will plan to spend more time outside during the semester in order to relieve my stress/anxiety. After this presentation, my group did some more work on our Great Collaboration project, and we've almost finished gathering all of the information for the first part of the presentation. I was able to talk to Courtney more, who I wasn't able to talk to much last tier, as well as Heli and Gage!

After lunch, we heard from the Furman advising team, and they were amazing at laying out required materials to be a competitive medical school applicant. They gave lots of good advice on finding research oppurtunities and volunteering experiences on campus! I also realized that I may need to plan Physics 2 into my course schedule as it is required for many medical schools, and it is not required for my major in Genetics. I think it will be very useful to meet with the advisors and devise a plan to earn the credits that are needed, and find experiences that allow me to gain the core competencies. I realize I need to do more in college in order to grow my soft skills as I don't believe them to be strong yet.

Lastly, we heard from a CAA, Mr. Goodwin, a certified anesthegiologist assistant. I never knew this career existed, but I am intrigued by it's capabilities. Althugh it seems to be a competitive program, I realize that I can always go into healthcare with only medical school pre requisites instead of a nursing degree. I am not sure if anesthesia interests me, but I undertstand how imperative it is to a patients treatment, and I know becoming a CAA would be a rewarding career. It was really interesting to learn about a small and unknown field of work that can have so much of a positive impact on healthcare.