BLOG N˚7 | Second Interview Preparation

1) Who is your mentor and where do they work? 

My mentor is Amelia and she is a registered nurse working at a general practice clinic in both Lakewood and Carson with Sihyam Dahiya MD. Not only do they do general practice clinical work, but also perform general surgeries.

2) What five questions will you ask your mentor?

a. Did you always want to be a registered nurse?

b. What made you want to go into the field of patient care?

c. What is your favorite part about your job and working with patients?

d. When working with difficult patients, what methods do you apply to try and deliver the care they need the best you can?

e. What advice would you tell yourself when you started working in this field?

BLOG N˚6 | Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?

What has worked exceptionally well for me is that I got to learn a lot more about a topic that I am genuinely interested, and we're only two months into the school year! Reading checks, at first, seem incredibly dull and pointless but they actually have helped me learn quite a bit from what my topic is. Reading material that were published by magnificent people with different achievements and occupations at some of the world's most recognized facilities gave me a more in-depth perspective on medical knowledge. However, working in the field itself has been a much more interesting and without a doubt, awarding privilege. From gaining these experiences, I've learned so many things that can not be learned by simply reading some articles.What has made it a positive experience with the senior project is going out of my comfort zone and getting experiences out in the world. It's also the most interesting thing to hear other classmates' stories of them in their own mentorship and how exciting it is to be a part of something we're passionate about.

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

The most difficult part concerning senior project is how far I have to travel to do my senior project. It is extremely hard to acquire mentorships in the field I am in as many medical students are also in competition for the internship spots that involve patient care in many clinics and hospitals. However, I am truly blessed to even have found a spot in a city that is an hour drive and another hour going back. As time goes by, I will have to get to eventually get used to driving such a distance. 

Blog N˚5 | Interview N˚1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

The most important thing I've learned from the interview is that both communication and patience plays a vital role when it comes to effective patient care. Reginald talked about his experiences with working with difficult patients and the methods he would apply to still deliver the care that they need. From listening to Reginald's experiences, he would emphasized how over time, he realized patience is especially a huge factor in doing his job as the patients all come from different backgrounds and have different needs and at times, some patients are just more demanding than others. 

Next time, I plan to have a more personalized interview asking about specific stories and examples. Although Reginald talked about his experiences in patient care, he never went into detail in storytelling. This would give the interview a more personalized feel.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

The additional contacts I obtained from this interview were some of the doctors that also work with Reginald in the emergency department. What makes it interesting is that a lot of the doctors Reginald works with varies with ages and backgrounds, which would give different perspectives and viewpoints in future interviews.

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

Reginald Doctor has been a registered nurse in the emergency room department for about 25 years now and still working up to today. He was also my summer mentor.

Interview N˚1 | Reginald Doctor (RN)

You can listen to the interview here

Reginald Doctor has been a registered nurse in the emergency room department for about 25 years now and still working up to today. He was also my summer mentor.

1) I'm interested in studying patient care. What can you tell me about it?

Patient care involves someone taking care of another that is ill, it involves you helping them get better physically and also mentally and emotionally. Just give them your support in any way you can.

2) From your perspective, what could I study that would be significant to other people?

Well if you want a direct patient care, you can study medicine and become a doctor. That is one of the fields you can study in. You can also get into nursing which also involves direct patient care. But there are other fields also where you can deal with patients depending on their needs such as physical therapy, speech therapy, or pharmacists. Pharmacology, you can study that.

3) Who else would you recommend I talk to?

Well, you can talk to one of the doctors I work with. Such as Dr. Kusmara or Dr. Schuck over in the emergency room in the department. Or any of my peers (or registered nurses) I work with in my department.

4) What kinds of places or activities do you recommend I do for the mentorship component?

You can definitely do volunteer work in a hospital. You can work in different departments there such as the emergency room or the surgical floor. You can also take certain classes such as CPR, first aid classes, you know, classes that would give you a background on the medical field and some have certifications.

5) What materials should I read in this field? Who else can I interview?

THere is actually a lot of materials you can read that pertain to medicine. There are a few medical journals you can read and also lots of nursing journals that are monthly or sometimes even weekly publications you can actually subscribe and read.

6) What is the most important component to effective patient-care learning from your experience?

Well, communication is very important not only the medical field, but any field you get into. But certainly it's a vital component in patient care. Obviously, having the knowledge with what you need to do are very very important and skills to learn as well.

7) What are some important things/lessons you've learned from working in this field?

Just in general, working in patient care, I've learned that it's not a very easy thing. It's definitely something you can't learn overnight. It's something that you develop within you when it comes to caring for people. Although, one lesson and one very rewarding thing I learned is that very its a very very rewarding feeling to help people get better from their sicknesses.

8) When working with a difficult patient, what are some methods do you apply to help deliver effective patient care?

Again, the key thing would be good communication and understanding where the other person is coming from. Trying to understand why in certain situations they are being difficult. Trying to understand those reasons and being able to communicate with them would be a key factor and a basic place to start with.

9) What do you like most about working to care for patients?

The best thing for me, again I would say, it's just the reward that it gives you. It gives me personally, not in a material sense, just a gratification, satisfaction, the reward inside of seeing someone get better and get well.

10) Any advice you would've given yourself when you first got started in this field?

I would say from the very beginning, and I would give myself this advice over and over again, is to learn and to have a lot of patience. And have a lot of understanding for people, and people are not the same. People come from different backgrounds and understand that and caring for them.

BLOG N˚4 | House Advisory Prep N˚1

Through this senior project, there are numerous things I hope to learn and experience. However, I hope to accomplish what I initially intended to and many more.

The more time I spend researching and help working in the field of patient care, the more I become immersed in wanting to take part in the area for the future years to come. For this year, I hope to gain experience and proper training that would help me become more skilled and informed as I continue to work with patients in future volunteer opportunities in college and hopefully a career as well. I aspire to gain better communication skills and a preparation for competency through this line of work. Another goal I hope to achieve is a better understanding with the foundation of basic medical knowledge and a bit more familiarity with human anatomy and medical terminology. Most of all, I hope to understand what aspects are important to creating a patient-centered health system and how it could positively affect a strong patient-doctor relationship.

BLOG N˚3 | First Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview and why?

As my senior topic is on patient care, I needed somebody with a whole lot of experience from this field. My summer mentor (who is also my father), Reginald Doctor, has been a Registered Nurse working in the Emergency Room ever since he graduated college in his early twenties. With decades of working to care for patients and spending the last almost thirty years saving people's lives in one of the most stressful departments in the hospital, he definitely would have lots of input to say about patient care.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask? 

1) I'm interested in studying patient care. What can you tell me about it?
2) From your perspective, what could I study that would be significant to other people?
3) Who else would you recommend I talk to?
4) What kinds of places or activities do you recommend I do for the mentorship component?
5) What materials should I read in this field? Who else can I interview?

6) What is the most important component to effective patient-care learning from your experience?
7) What are some important things/lessons you've learned from working in this field?
8) When working with a difficult patient, what are some methods do you apply to help deliver effective patient care?
9) What do you like most about working to care for patients?
10) Any advice you would've given yourself when you first got started in this field?