Blog #21|: Independent Component 2

LITERAL

(a)  I, Zhailah Graza, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

(b) San Dimas Community Hospital

(c) Mentorship Log  

(d) I continued mentorship with Dr. Dimowo. I shadowed and observed him at work and asked him questions.     

INTERPRETIVE 

I continued mentorship with Dr. Dimowo for my independent component so that I could learn more about what he does and also to help me answer my essential question. I was able to observe him while he consulted and treated patients and I learned a lot from him. He shared his expertise with me, sat down with me and answered any questions that I had. I was able to take a lot of notes.  He also talked to me about my senior project and gave me tips on how I could make it better. Also, he offered to review my I-Search paper and give me feedback. He lent me documents to help me potentially understand how he is able to help patients. 

APPLIED

My independent component helped me answer my essential question because through observing and questioning Dr. Dimowo I learned different ways that Anesthesiologists treat chronic back pain. Upon my observation I learned from Dr. Dimowo that prescribing medications, performing surgical procedures and physical therapy are the best ways an Anesthesiologist can treat chronic (back) pain. There would be patients coming in with complaints of back pain and I was able to observe Dr. Dimowo treating his patients with the use of trigger point anesthetics and other small anesthetic procedures for pain management. He told me about different pain medications that he prescribes his patients and he also told me about the importance of physical therapy in treating a patient's chronic pain condition. During my extra hours of mentorship I also helped with some office work, such as filing patient information and organizing them by alphabetical order.

Blog #15|: Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

1.  Mentorship with a specialist in pain management . 

2. If I do mentorship hours I will hopefully exceed the expected hours requirement for Independent Component 2. 

3. Mentorship hours will definitely allow me to learn more and get some experience with my topic of anesthesiology focusing on chronic pain management. 

Blog #14|: Independent Component 1

✍ Literal 

• I, Zhailah Graza, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.   
• Kathleen Rivero helped me with volunteering at San Dimas Community Hospital and I am taking a Chemistry class at Cal Poly. 
• Independent Component 1 Hours Log
• Accrued hours volunteering in the ER at San Dimas Community Hospital and helped the staff with simple tasks and whatever they needed help with. For example, I would help the nurses by cleaning up the stations so new patients could come in.  I am taking a General Chemistry class at Cal Poly. We are learning the basics and foundation of Chemistry. For example, my professor started us off by memorizing the elements of the periodic table. We take it slowly and memorize a handful each week. We are also learning how to balance chemical equations (nomenclature), stoicheometry, etc. 

✍ Interpretive 

• Taking the chemistry class has been a good experience. Especially the hours put into studying and reviewing notes. I have only taken 2 quizzes so far, but the professor goes through a lot of content in a little amount of time, so keeping up with the pace of the class is important.  

          Volunteering in the hospital every saturday morning has been an enjoyable learning experience. Sometimes I just fall into the routine of working in the ER but sometimes interesting things will happen. Obviously in the ER different people (young and old) come in for different issues. There have been different cases from an elderly that had a fall and fractured their hip, to random cases where a patient comes in with an infection on their head from some odd cause (this literally happened). However, regardless of whatever happens in the ER, it stays in the ER and my job and duties stay the same. I'm constantly helping to keep the environment sanitary by wiping every inch of surface with heavy-duty sanitary wipes. These sanitation wet wipes are so strong that I'm not even allowed to touch them with my bare hands. I always had to change my gloves whenever I wiped down the surfaces. Everything was pretty much routine in the ER. Wipe down, restocking, running patient samples to the lab for the nurses,etc. 

http://zhailahrosalie.blogspot.com/2012/11/independent-component.html 

http://zhailahrosalie.blogspot.com/2013/01/general-chemistry-quiz-1-011813.html

 

February 13, 2013

To Whom It May Concern:

Re: Zhailah Graza

  This letter is to confirm that Zhailah Graza has volunteered 41.2 community hours

at San Dimas Community Hospital. Zhailah has been assisting in various areas in our facility .   She has demonstrated compassion and great public relation skills toward her community. We appreciate her time and effort she has volunteered to San Dimas community Hospital. If you have any further questions please contact me.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Rivero

Medical Record Supervisor

Volunteer Coordinator

San Dimas Hospital

1350 W. Covina Blvd

San Dimas, CA 91773

909-599-6811  ext 2644

Fax# 909-305-5695

[I apologize for my lack of  'evidence'. By contract I'm not allowed to take pictures or even speak of  who/what goes on in the hospital. HIPPA form.]

✍ Applied 

• Working in the ER helped me narrow down my topic and find out what I wanted to use for my essential question. For example, I wanted to do my project on anesthesiology, but my experience at the ER showed me that anesthesiology is too broad of a topic, so that helped me decide to focus my essential question on a certain specialty of anesthesiology which is now Pain Management. For example, I had a brief conversation with an anesthesiologist and I realized that there are many areas of anesthesiology that I haven't even touched base on yet. So I thought it would be more interesting to focus on one specific area and got an overall grasp on that one division of anesthesiology.

          My chemistry class has helped me understand some of the elements better, which has helped me get to know my topic of anesthesiology a bit better. For example, some anesthetics literally have basic chemical components that are derived from the common elements. Understanding chemistry has aided me in getting to know the very basic components of the anesthetics. 

General Chemistry Quiz #1 [01.18.13]

Spent a fortune on these Chem text books ☠ [Winter Quarter 2013] CHM 121-02 Prof. Margolese

Blog #10|: Senior Project Update

(1) What are you currently doing in your independent component? 
             
           Mentorship in the ER and getting extra volunteer hours. Taking a Chemistry class at Cal Poly.

(2) What is a recent piece of research (article, interview, or audio-visual) that have you reviewed you would say was significant in helping you understand where to go next in your senior project?  The piece of research should be something you reviewed in November.  Please explain what you learned and where are you going next because of this piece of research.

               Some time in the middle of November I ran into a Cardiothoracic surgeon while on a visit to my great grandmother in ICU (Intensive Care Unit) at the Arcadia Methodist Hospital.  I was only able to talk to her for a few minutes, but I plan to contact her again and have a more formal interview. Her name is Dr. Suzy Liu. When I first met her I was able to ask her what it's like working with an Anesthesiologist and how important an Anesthesiologists' role is to the success of any surgical procedure. She really emphasized the importance and how absolutely imperative it is for a patient to be properly sedated before surgery. This brief encounter with Dr. Suzy Liu really encouraged me to keep on doing research and contacting more professionals in the surgical field. I also asked her some things about the Anesthesiologist she works with. So, the next time I interview her I plan to try and ask her if I can also meet the Anesthesiologist(s) she works with. 


(3) Provide evidence from your independent component or the piece of research as something you recently did.  For example, a photo of something you working on for your independent component or your notes from the video you watched. 

(Refer to previous blog post) :D 

Independent Component

Sanitation gear I had to wear before dealing with highly contagious patients or to prevent from contaminating patients with my own germs. 

Blog #7|: Independent Component 1 Plan Approval

 1. For the Independent Study Component I plan to continue mentorship and accrue volunteer hours in the ER; observing procedures performed by the nurses, running errands for the nurses and assisting patients.

2. Not only will I complete the 30 hour work requirement I will most likely end up doing additional hours. For example if I work once a week for 4 hours until the due date of the component I will have accumulated this many hours: ~ 64 hours.

3. My working EQ is "What is the best way to administer anesthesia?" While working in the ER often times nurse anesthetists and/or doctors will run into a situation where a patient will need to be put under right away; facing crucial life or death predicaments. I think I will be able to learn a lot just by observing the nurses/doctors when they are handling situations as these.