Note: image from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/doctor-career-information-526008
Note: Image from: https://www.phigemparts.com/parts/pet
MY CONTRIBUTION!
My contribution allowed the research staff to facilitate a larger amount of test subjects, which generated a larger degree of data, and helped the team get closer to curing Alzheimer's. My contribution allowed the team to focus their energy more on the data collection and patient care.
My project revolves around getting as much patient data during the early stages of Alzehmier's to identify its causes and possible cures. Data from diet, sleep, problem solving , autopsy, and radiological and magnetic imaging are collected. This is all in the attempt to find the cause and cure for Alzheimer's.
Reflection and revised summary
This year I have gotten the idea of what it means to be a medical researcher, the lifestyle it requires, and gains that such career entails. This came from helping out on administrative duties of the research staff and observing their work with patients. This internship allowed me to be a better employee, learned how to work independently, and adapt to situations as they occur. These skills are quite transferable as they can be applied to many working situations. My existing talents of problem-solving, communication, and time management were grown with this experience by putting me in situations that I had not been in previously that required those skills to maneuver those situations. The most challenging part of the job was figuring out what the expectations were for me as an assistant and as a employee. This was largely figured out by observation and conversation.
My Internship
I have had a couple of meaningful experiences with doctor Apostolova. One that stood out the most to me was when I got to shadow her.
I watched her interact with patients, fill out research paperwork, and conduct memory and neurological tests on a patient. I must say that the experience was rather strange, odd, and disconcerting. It seemed strange that doctor Apostolova cared more about the wellbeing of the study partner than the patient. It felt strange she seemed to care more about the patient more as research subject, than a person with a disease. It felt strange that the best that could be done is 20 pages of consent forms, a brain donation agreement, and two fifty dollar target gift cards. I enjoyed interacting with the patient, though I watched them forget me with every sentence. I simply wish I got to see healing happen, but in a way I did, I got to watch how healing is discovered. Unfortunately, I found it a bit strange.
In essence I now see what it means to be a research doctor. It means to have a team of five people who manage a large amount of paperwork, everything from consent forms from mailing in appointments, to organizing files, then two more people who give a memory test to the patient, and finally the doctor sits down with the patient, asks a few more questions, fills out some more paperwork, and finally lets one more person help with the paperwork. Then that documentation is sent to a team that adds the data to a spreadsheet of information.
I hope that my contribution is more based on interacting with patients, than being a member of the paperwork team. It seems more meaningful to me to learn more about the disease from seeing it, than to read about it in the literature.
I also got to see a pet scan. It was quite interesting, I watched how the doctor's aids took exact time indicators of when a solution was added, of the techniques used to see the images. However, what interested me most was how the machinery worked and how it helped with Alzheimer's. It was so cool to learn that the injected dye binds to misfolded proteins that then light up with radiation from the pet scan.
I also like that have seen only professional behavior. I think how nice everyone is, how much respect they have for one another is remarkable. I also like how laid back everyone seems to act. It seems that because everyone enjoyed their work, and were always happy to help. It seemed that as long as everyone helped out their fair share, everyone was happy. I want to get better at going with the flow as a professional. To hear the situation and help out the best I can after something has happened.
I also quite enjoyed site visit and fall discussion . These experiences allowed me to better explain what I has hoping to get out of my internship and to meet my goals. Nothing against filing paperwork, and organizing sheets, and getting charts made, but what will help me grow and meet my goals is seeing the doctors in person, having conversations with them, and observing patients. Getting to express those feelings during the site visit was quite nice. The fall discussion was also an opportunity be inspired by others and see how my peers are doing.
Successes and challenges
Perhaps I have been most successful with learning more about Alzheimer's. I have gotten a better understanding of how it works, how it professes, and what causes it. However, the most challenging part of my internship is bureaucratic nature of the research. There are many forms, each that need to be printed, and organized in a certain way, then placed in a certain place, by a certain time. I have strengthened my in filing and sorting paperwork, how to interact with patients, and being professional. It was also quite challenging to see that my evaluation showed room for improvement. This stems from the fact that I had gone a full semester thinking that I was doing an alright job.
Expectations vs Reality
I think the biggest shocker of this job is how much work goes into making a routine check up or neurology examination possible. It requires 4 full time workers to organize, create, fill out, and check a large amount of paperwork to make the magic happen. What is even more strange, is that the rules to how this paperwork is organized is constantly changing. This means those full time workers, often have to adapt to new rules all the time. I was hoping that the work would have been far more clinical. While, organizing paperwork is great, it does not help me see a job in medicine, but rather a job in medical administration . This experience has shown me that I am not interested in such a thing.
Strengths, teamwork, and project
My greatest strength is my generalist abilities. The tasks that I was given were quite different week to week and I was able to figure out how to complete these tasks independently and efficiently. I tried to help others by being around listening to their tasks and complaints and offering help depending on if that person is need of help or simply venting.
