Working As a Medical Scribe-Summer 2017

Lately, I have been reflecting on how thankful I am that I was presented with the opportunity to work as a medical scribe this past summer. I knew that I needed clinical experience for my medical school applications, but I had never considered scribing simply because I was unfamiliar with what it was or how to go about finding a scribe position. I vividly remember being surrounded by all of my friends that were accepting internships and jobs last Spring and I felt so frustrated after being rejected from many clerical and minimal patient care positions at local hospitals. I was worried I would get stuck lifeguarding or working in the food industry, until I came across an ad by ProScribe on Indeed.

I applied for the job that was posted from Dayton, OH.  45 minutes from home was not a big deal for me because I felt lucky to find a position in a hospital environment that required no previous experience working in healthcare. I applied for the job, received a Skype interview, and the rest is history. I found out that the position was not located in Dayton, but was located in Sidney, OH which is approximately 1 hour from my house. I was nervous about dealing with the commute so early in the morning, making 8 hour workdays even longer than they should be. I almost revoked the position, but then I remembered an important lesson that I had learned during my first year at Ohio State: when an opportunity strikes, take it. This lesson comes with heavy digression, obviously no one can accept all opportunities that come their way! But something inside me was telling myself to try the position out because it could be one of the most valuable experiences of my undergraduate career.

Valuable doesn’t do this experience justice. I adjusted to the commute fairly easily and made it worth it by celebrating the end of each work week by stopping at Chik-Fil-A on the commute home. I was exposed to what medicine is truly like firsthand. I was able to witness healthcare and medicine in real-time, and I truly grasped the reality of life as a physician. This ER staffs mostly travel ER doctors, and because of this, I was able to work with a lot of different physicians from different backgrounds. I learned so much about the elements of a patient chart, the typical approaches to common chief complaints, the normal values for vitals and metabolic panels, and what life as a physician is truly like.

The lingering question is, did it meet my expectations? Do I still want to be a doctor? If anything, this experience enhanced my decision. I say YES to medical school and to medicine over and over again, with no hesitation. I remember becoming tearful during my commute home one evening because of how excited I am to be a doctor. I cannot wait to eventually be the person serving others through medicine, and being a person that is awarded immediate trust with a patient’s wellbeing. I cannot thank ProScribe and the team at Wilson Health Memorial Hospital enough. I know that my memories and experiences there have shaped me into the kind of doctor that I aspire to be.

Young and Beautiful

Final Draft-WritingAboutDanceSP18

I wrote this paper last semester and it is something I am incredibly proud of. For my second writing GE, I decided to take the class Dance2367H “Writing About Dance.” I enrolled in this class because I envisioned that it would merge two of my passions–writing and dance. But this class taught me so much more than how to write a paper about a scene from a music video. I learned how to approach interpretation of forms of art and, also, how to effectively write about it.

This class pushed me out of my comfort zone for many reasons. Being a science major limits my exposure to the humanities, which makes me poorly versed in creative arts. But this class caught my attention because I have always been interested in cheer and dance, and I anticipated that it would be a fun class to take. The course was outlined through a series of assignments that converged into one giant paper. We were able to pick a clip from a music video, dance video, movie, musical, or commercial. And then we had to analyze the choreography and then contextualize it towards a real-world phenomenon. I chose a clip from a ballroom dance piece to the song “Young and Beautiful” by Lana Del Rey. I contextualized this piece towards the strain placed on intimate relationships between men and women as a result of society’s idealistic perceptions of female youth and beauty.

‘Women in Medicine’ Mentorship Program

Yesterday, I went to the kickoff event for the formal mentorship program hosted by ‘Women in Medicine’ at Ohio State College of Medicine. I went to the event overdressed excited to meet my mentor! All of the undergraduate Pre-Med students that sign up for this program get paired with a mentor that is either an M1 or M2 at the College of Medicine. My mentor’s name is Celia and she is an M2. I am looking forward to getting to know her better!

The event started off with a breakfast catered by Panera followed by a presentation from the director of the program and a keynote address from a female rheumatoligist that performed her residency at Ohio State. Her speech addressed the common misconceptions the average person makes about women in medicine. Women are constantly confronted with condescending questions such as ‘When will you start a family? How will you start a family? Who will raise your kids?’ She comforted us by reassuring that the answers to these questions can be difficult, but we don’t have to be alone during the decision-making process. She challenged us to utilize this mentorship opportunity to the best of our ability and to deter away from the competitive stigma that surrounds women professionals.

I am really excited to commence formal mentorship with my mentor at the college of medicine. I know that it will be incredibly valuable to have someone guide me through Pre-Med courses, the MCAT, the application processes, and other challenges as a Pre-Med student.

Year in Review-My First Year at Ohio State

I remember heading to orientation with my mom on June 24th, 2016. I was frightened but I was also excited. Even though I had spoken with students from my high school that had already attended orientation, I felt very scatterbrained and overwhelmed during orientation, and I unfortunately left with a negative outlook on my decision to come to Ohio State. How am I supposed to know what classes to take? Am I really qualified to take honors biology? Should biology, calculus, and chemistry be taken together during my first collegiate semester? I received poor instruction regarding these things and my GPA suffered after my first year at Ohio State. I realized after a few lectures in my honors biology class that I was the only student that had not taken AP Biology in high school, simply because it wasn’t offered at my high school. Yikes!! I missed the professors’ expectations dramatically. There is so much that I know now that I wish I could have told my younger self. Sometimes I get frustrated and I think that maybe if I had received better guidance at orientation about my chosen classes, then I wouldn’t have a danger zone GPA looming over my head, but I have to thank this experience more than resent it. I learned a lot of valuable lessons in my first year at Ohio State, and I truly grasped the necessity to fail before the capability to succeed.

I learned that skipping class is a big, bad idea. I would brush off the 8:00am calculus lecture because I knew the notes would be available from one of my diligent study buddies. And I took calculus in high school so I already knew everything, right? I was sorely mistaken. I occasionally sleep through my alarm and end up running to my 9:10am’s this semester, but I have learned how important it is to prioritize going to class and giving the material your undivided attention for those 55 or 80 minutes.

I learned that making flashcards is a sure way of failing a biology exam that asks you to conceptualize and analyze. My biology exams in high school were definition based, so why wouldn’t it be the same in college? *buzzer* The score on my first biology exam suffered because I was simply not connecting the dots. I learned that sitting in the SEL library for 8 hours on the Saturday prior to the Monday exam was far less valuable than studying every day 1  week before the exam for 1-2 hours.  Quality > Quantity rules the methods of efficient studying, and flash cards are useless for trying to understand the sigmoidal hemoglobin curve.

I learned that everything counts. I think back to places where I missed a few silly points in my chemistry lab or on chemistry homework, and how that could have constituted the small percentage difference between the B+ that I received and the A- I could have received. Never take anything for granted.

Most importantly, I learned that I can’t do it all. I went to the activities fair on the oval during the first week of classes, eager to join some amazing organizations, and I wound up joining 3 different Pre-Med clubs and having 20+ emails the next week from way too many organizations that I had minimal interest in. I have spoken to other students and I know that they suffered from the same behavior. As high achievers, we think we need to put our eggs in 10 different baskets and it is the only way we can achieve our goals. I learned that it is so much better to choose a few different organizations that you are passionate about than having back-to-back meetings every week night.

I am by no means an expert on all-things-college after learning from many failures during my first year at Ohio State. But I know that I came into my second year with wisdom from these experiences that has allowed me to be more successful in all of my endeavors during my second year. My first impression at orientation was quickly absolved by all of the amazing experiences I have had and the amazing people that I have met during my first year as a college student.