BLOG N˚10 | Interview Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)

I have just recently switched mentorships but both have been incredibly helpful and insightful towards my senior topic. My first mentorship was at a general practice clinic where I shadowed nurses at a clinic setting. Clinics are small and cover, for the most part, basically anything as far as health care goes whereas in the hospital, I only work in one department specified for a certain part of healthcare. In the clinic, I helped give blood pressure, give out blood tests, help call in patients, file in medical records, and more. In my new mentorship, I am volunteering at the Queen Of The Valley hospital where I help out at the Labor & Delivery department. In a hospital, everything is much bigger and definitely a lot more fast-paced and overwhelming. I usually provide the patients with things they want such as ice or pillows, deliver blood and urine tests to the lab, put tags on the newborn babies, and many more. This has done many things as far as gaining experience in my senior topic and in many ways, has done much more. Being surrounded by the environment that I am very interested in has given me a lot more depth into knowing how the health care team works as far as a profession and a field.

2.  How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you? 

My father was a registered nurse at Queen Of The Valley hospital (he has since transferred to a different hospital). However, through him, I have met Tiffany Ramirez who helps organize hospital volunteers. It wasn't very difficult at all to convince her to help me as she has worked with my father before and has worked with many teenagers in my position.

3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?

As she is very experienced with working with young teenagers (some who haven't even had volunteer experience prior to coming to he hospital), she was extremely kind and helpful and makes me feel at ease in an environment where it can get extremely stressful. Moreover, my position as a volunteer at Queen Of The Valley seems very secure and something I would be able to keep for a long while. I haven't spent much time so far working with my new department but they have had many junior volunteers before and know exactly how to handle volunteers who have not have had the experience and who may not understand medical language. The doctors and nurses I work with are extremely kind and in no way make me feel uncomfortable and overwhelmed as they try to be as helpful as they can.

 
4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?

As Tiffany is a very kind person, she didn't intimidate me at all in the interview and I a;ways find it so easy to talk to her. I felt the interview was very natural and didn't really feel like an interview at all. However, I wish I could've asked a lot more follow-up questions to help me get the most information I could possibly have gotten. This is something I will keep in my mind for my next interview to come and to really take advantage of possibly one of the best resources one could have in wanting to work in the medical field - the source of a person in the field themselves. 

INTERVIEW N˚2 | An Interview With Tiffany Ramirez

What is your name and what is your job?

Tiffany Ramirez and I am the corporate director of volunteer service for Citrus Health Valley Partners. So I oversee all the volunteer programs for the organization.

What would be your favorite thing about your job?

Favorite part of my job is being able to interact with the volunteers who are so passionate about giving back to their community hospitals.

If you were to give yourself when you first started, what would give yourself?

Wow, well that's a good question. What advice would I give myself when I first started? Maybe to take time to really enjoy the volunteers and not get so wrapped up in the office aspect or the clerical aspect but to really get to enjoy the friendships and the personalities they would have and get to know them as people because them as individuals is just a huge part of it and they are great people. I wish I would've, nine years ago, taken more time to really get to build those relationships instead of being so caught up in the paper part of it.

You work very closely with patient care related jobs.

Yes that is correct.

What are some tips you can give to a new hospital volunteer?

Definitely be assertive. Try to make yourself as useful as you can and really try and ask who you're working with "how can I help?" or "what can I do?" This would let the health care team know that you really want to make the effort to help out and that you really want to be there. Also, I believe you mentioned the main reason you wanted to volunteer is because you wanted experience in the field prior to studying it in college?

Yes, that is the main reason why, yes.

You know, and you want to really maximize the opportunity you have. If you have the advantage to be around the environment what could possibly be your future profession, try to really ask a lot of questions and really try to make the most out of the tasks you have been given as a student volunteer.

Is there anybody you would recommend for future interviews about patient care?

I would definitely say the nurses and doctors you have in your department. A lot of them have had been in this field for a few decades so they definitely would have a lot to say about your senior topic.

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.

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?