Weekly Documentation

Week of 10/21/19

This week I annotated and took notes on my second article, "A Modified Tibial Tubercle Osteotomy for Patellar Mal-tracking". This article discussed the effectiveness of a tibial tubercle osteotomy in efforts to reduce patellar instability and mal-tracking. The experiment concluded that this procedure did in fact reduce symptoms and help with patellar issues. I updated Noodle-tools as well. In addition, my design plan was accepted by the steering committee (can be found under the "Design Plan" tab) and I wrote my design plan reflection (can be found under the "Reflection" tab).

Week of 11/18/19

I called both the orthopedic department at the UConn Health Center and the Elite Sports Medicine wing of CCMC and inquired about shadowing. I received calls back from both hospitals and was sent forms to fill out before I can shadow. I completed the forms and sent them back to both places. I have a specific RPN that I will be shadowing at UConn, and there are three possible PA's that I could shadow at CCMC (whichever has the availability I will shadow). Once my forms are processed, I will receive specific dates at both hospitals in which I can come in and spend a day shadowing. I'm currently working on my notes from Article #4 (can be found under the "Research" tab) which are due on December 2nd.

Week of 12/2/19

This week I continued to work on the Tunxis Community College Online Medical Terminology Course. I'm almost finished with the third lesson. I also filed my paperwork to CCMC and I'm currently waiting for a response from the organizer to set up a time to shadow one of their PA's.

Week of 12/16/19

I finished my Article 5 Notes (can be found under the "Research" tab) and also completed lessons 9 and 10 of the Medical Terminology Course. Over break I plan to begin working on my midyear presentation which is on January 12th, 2020. I'm still waiting to hear back from CCMC regarding shadowing.

Week of 1/13/20

This week I focused on updating my digital portfolio. I also had my midyear meeting with Dr. Monaghan where we talked about the progress I've made so far this year and what I plan to do in the next half of the year. After talking, I decided that I need to make shadowing hours a top priority of mine in order to reach the 15 hour mark. With that said, I plan on reaching out to more physician assistants and possibly setting up a meeting with Mr. Netcoh, the activities advisor, to talk about possible shadowing opportunities.

Week of 2/10/20

On Monday Feb. 10th, we had our third CPR class. For this class, we went into the gym and actually practiced performing CPR on a dummy patient. I couldn't participate in it because I have very bad knees and couldn't kneel on the ground to perform CPR. Ms. Stokoe said that during the actual CPR test, the dummy will be on one of the bleachers so I can stand and perform it rather than kneel on the ground. On Wednesday Feb. 12th, 1000+ words were due for our research papers. Over the weekend, I worked on continuing my paper and also organizing all of my thoughts logically. I was able to also make a list of some things that I still needed to research that would be an important asset to my paper. On Friday Feb. 14th I shadowed Lindsay again from 2:00-5:00pm (notes from this visit can be found under the "Community Connections" tab). Unlike last time, there were a lot of patients that both Lindsay and her coworker Joe Ingriselli were working with. There were six patients that I was able to interact with. Lindsay introduced each patient to me and told me about what they were focusing on that session. After that, Lindsay worked with each individual patient. I took notes about how Lindsay went about treating each patient based on their ability and age.

Week of 2/24/20

On Monday, we got CPR certified in the gym by Ms. Stokoe and Ben Troup. We had to properly care for a "person" who was unresponsive and had collapsed on the ground. We went through the proper procedure such as chest compressions and breathes. We did 3 sets of 30 compressions. On Friday, we turned in our final research paper to Ms. Stokoe and Ms. Tebbetts. After school on Friday, I went to APT again to shadow Lindsay from 2:00-6:00 (notes from this visit can be found under the "Community Connections" tab). I was able to interact with her new patients as well as patients that I had already met previously. They had a lot of patients this time from all age groups so I was able to learn about the different care and precautions they take with certain ages.

Week of 3/9/20

This week, we worked on updating our digital portfolios. Last week, I updated the majority of it. So, this week I worked on making my digital portfolio more aesthetically pleasing. I added some pictures and also some background images. A guest speaker was supposed to come in on Friday to talk about her project from last year, but she had to cancel. My goal for the coming weeks is to finish the rest of my shadowing hours. I need 5 more hours. But, since everything in Farmington is closing until who knows when, I plan to text Lindsay and ask her if APT is still open and if I can come shadow. If not, that I will plan on reaching out to individuals through LinkedIn and request to do an interview over Google Hangout, Skype, or FaceTime.

Week of 3/23/20

On Monday 3/23/20, we were introduced to the new Connected Learning protocol. Our task for today was to continue working on our digital portfolio and turn in any revised work. I updated the project documentation slide of my portfolio and also revised my Midyear Presentation Reflection and turned it in (this can be found under the "Reflection" tab). I also started to look into other ways I can get my community contact hours.

Week of 4/19/20

Throughout this week, I worked on completing the rest of my alternative contact hours.