Today was the last day of the Musculoskeletal section of Anatomy. Our first exam is Monday morning, on the enitre musculoskeletal system. AHH! No, really, I'm not expecting it to be that bad. Yesterday we studied the pelvis and lower limb, and finished up the lower limb today. When we first came in, we played a little game with Mrs. Renner, the director, and pretended the articulated skeleton was a patient, and we had to role play the RT. We had to introduce ourselves, get the "patient" to give their name and DOB to verify their identity, and then make sure what the requisition (order) we had received was what the actual patient needed. We were given a slip of paper with an anatomical name of what we were radiographing, which was the quiz part since we were in anatomy. The patients were people like Simon Cowell, Roy Williams, Holden Thorpe, Erskin Bowles, Paula Abdul. And Coach K was one of them too. I said he's unfixable. For the rest of the class, we reviewed. Primarily the lower limb and pelvis, but a little of the rest of the body, too. I feel pretty good about the exam so far, but once I actually start studying we'll see how much I really know!
Today in RadSci we had lab and we also did role play in there! Some of us were patients and had to give signs and symptoms to our "caregivers" and they had to figure out how to help us, which included figuring out what was wrong with us. I was hypoglycemic. It was pretty fun! I didn't expect it to be, I'm not a good actress. Though we did get to see the lab for the first time, with all the equipment in it, which was pretty cool. My friend and I found a back way to the lab, which we shouldn't have been able to do because our badges shouldn't be able to open some of those doors, but they did! It was an adventure.Tomorrow we finish up talking about medications and contrasts, and start catheters, lines, and patient care accessories. We've been looking at contrasts and different ways to give them, the side effects, etc. After our first year of the program, we choose a modality to work with in our summer internship and I believe our whole senior year. I had originally thought MRI (it IS only the second week!), but the downside of that is administering the contrast. I'm not sure how I could handle patients vomiting everyday. And sometimes in MRI you have to give enemas (in common terms, put stuff up the butthole). But besides that, it seems pretty cool! A couple of the other people I eat lunch with mentioned MR, too, so that would be fun to be in it together. Okay! Now you are up to speed.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Play-doh
Public Service Announcement: I do not have TB! Not that I thought I did or anything. We went and got our TB tests checked out on Friday, and then met with the Radiation Safety Officer (who is actually a graduate of our program). He talked to us about radiation safety obviously, which includes dosimeters/radiation badges, shielding, pregnancy, etc. It was interesting stuff, but mainly because I don't want to die from radiation so it's pretty important. Over the weekend I had some reading to do (anatomy) but mostly I worked on Medical Terminology, because our first quiz is due tomorrow. I did it today though and I passed!
Yesterday in Anatomy we worked on the Upper Limb and Thorax. Mainly we focused on the vessels and nerves of the upper limb and the rib cage. It is amazing how much stuff goes into anatomy, and also how much stuff I can remember and have already learned! Today we did the back, which most of our time was spent on the spine and the vertebrae. We did arts and crafts to help us remember:
This is a typical vertebra. Blue = body, Green = pedicles, Purple/Pink = transverse processes, orange = luminae, Brown = spinous process. I'm quite proud of our artwork. I also made a weiner dog (no picture available). Our first exam in anatomy is next Monday, less than a week! I'm sure I'll be prepared by then, but not yet!!!!!
Intro to Radiologic Science is going fairly well, too. I really like this professor - but she's pregnant so she will be leaving us mid-July to October. :( We started Infection Control today so we're learning about sterile procedures, how to keep a sterile field clean, the difference between medical asepsis and surgical asepsis, how to put on a sterile glove, differences between precautions (standard - everyone is potentially infections, airborne, droplet, contact, etc). Tomorrow we start meds and contrast, yay. I had my first lab today, and I learned how to take blood pressure! I do it better on the manakin than I do on a real person, but that's because it's electronic. I just need to practice more. I have low blood pressure, which I already knew.
Yesterday in Anatomy we worked on the Upper Limb and Thorax. Mainly we focused on the vessels and nerves of the upper limb and the rib cage. It is amazing how much stuff goes into anatomy, and also how much stuff I can remember and have already learned! Today we did the back, which most of our time was spent on the spine and the vertebrae. We did arts and crafts to help us remember:
This is a typical vertebra. Blue = body, Green = pedicles, Purple/Pink = transverse processes, orange = luminae, Brown = spinous process. I'm quite proud of our artwork. I also made a weiner dog (no picture available). Our first exam in anatomy is next Monday, less than a week! I'm sure I'll be prepared by then, but not yet!!!!!
Intro to Radiologic Science is going fairly well, too. I really like this professor - but she's pregnant so she will be leaving us mid-July to October. :( We started Infection Control today so we're learning about sterile procedures, how to keep a sterile field clean, the difference between medical asepsis and surgical asepsis, how to put on a sterile glove, differences between precautions (standard - everyone is potentially infections, airborne, droplet, contact, etc). Tomorrow we start meds and contrast, yay. I had my first lab today, and I learned how to take blood pressure! I do it better on the manakin than I do on a real person, but that's because it's electronic. I just need to practice more. I have low blood pressure, which I already knew.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Radiologic Science
The adventure has begun! I moved into the house Rachel and I are subleasing on Monday in Chapel Hill and had orientation on Wednesday. The orientation lasted from 9am to 4pm, with an hour lunch break. We had an introduction to the program, which included:
After the clinical stuff, we went and got TB test shots, got our School of Medicine ID badges (I'm official now!) and then had some lunch. They are building a cafeteria right behind Bondurant which should be open sometime around the beginning of the Fall Semester - that should be very convenient!!
After lunch we had overviews of the two courses we are taking this summer, which actually turn out to kind of be 3-ish courses wrapped into 2. The first is Human Gross Anatomy, which will be divided into 3 sections taught by 3 professors. The good news is that I actually don't have to work on cadavers! I had been worried about that. Instead, while we are in class, someone will have been prosecting the cadavers so when we get into the lab, we don't have to spend time doing it ourselves and can just look and observe exactly what we need to be seeing. Lucky me!
The second/third course is Introduction to Radiologic Science (which also includes Radiological Health and Imagining Physics). We will be learning about Patient Assessment, Isolation and Infection Control, Medications and Contrast Materials, Catheters, Tubes, Lines and Patient Care Accessories, Body Mechanics, Positioning Principles, Communication, Medical Ethics, and Legalities, Imaging Principles, and Radiation Protection. On top of that course that is split between two different professors and 3 different broad topics, Medical Terminology is a sort of side-course that we must do completely outside of class. We have a textbook for it and every few days there is a quiz on the new med terms.
Finally, after those intros, we had an orientation checklist of paperwork and tutorials we had to complete. This included: contact information, healthcare disclaimer form, immunization records, confidentiality statements, Honor Code, Glutaraldehyde test, Radiation Safety packet, pregnancy student disclaimer, health insurance, formaldehyde test, radiation protection worker registration form (to get our dosimeters), environmental health and safety test (4 of them), and HIPAA training. After we finished we were free to leave and go buy our textbooks!
So after the all-day orientation, I went home and read for seven hours. Then went to bed :) Thursday was the first day of class and I have to say it went quite well. So far it hasn't seemed to be extremely hard but I know that will change and the information load will get bigger. But for now I am grateful it seems doable. On top of getting the program started, my phone decided to become stubborn and pretty much paralyzed. It froze almost everytime I tried to use it, so I had to go to the Verizon store Thursday after class to get it fixed. Luckily it IS fixed, for now. We'll see..
- introducing ourselves
- getting the professors' contact information
- housekeeping like immunizations and insurance
- parking permits for Duke and Alamance
- the Honor Coe
- behavior and performance
- policies and procedures
After the clinical stuff, we went and got TB test shots, got our School of Medicine ID badges (I'm official now!) and then had some lunch. They are building a cafeteria right behind Bondurant which should be open sometime around the beginning of the Fall Semester - that should be very convenient!!
After lunch we had overviews of the two courses we are taking this summer, which actually turn out to kind of be 3-ish courses wrapped into 2. The first is Human Gross Anatomy, which will be divided into 3 sections taught by 3 professors. The good news is that I actually don't have to work on cadavers! I had been worried about that. Instead, while we are in class, someone will have been prosecting the cadavers so when we get into the lab, we don't have to spend time doing it ourselves and can just look and observe exactly what we need to be seeing. Lucky me!
The second/third course is Introduction to Radiologic Science (which also includes Radiological Health and Imagining Physics). We will be learning about Patient Assessment, Isolation and Infection Control, Medications and Contrast Materials, Catheters, Tubes, Lines and Patient Care Accessories, Body Mechanics, Positioning Principles, Communication, Medical Ethics, and Legalities, Imaging Principles, and Radiation Protection. On top of that course that is split between two different professors and 3 different broad topics, Medical Terminology is a sort of side-course that we must do completely outside of class. We have a textbook for it and every few days there is a quiz on the new med terms.
Finally, after those intros, we had an orientation checklist of paperwork and tutorials we had to complete. This included: contact information, healthcare disclaimer form, immunization records, confidentiality statements, Honor Code, Glutaraldehyde test, Radiation Safety packet, pregnancy student disclaimer, health insurance, formaldehyde test, radiation protection worker registration form (to get our dosimeters), environmental health and safety test (4 of them), and HIPAA training. After we finished we were free to leave and go buy our textbooks!
So after the all-day orientation, I went home and read for seven hours. Then went to bed :) Thursday was the first day of class and I have to say it went quite well. So far it hasn't seemed to be extremely hard but I know that will change and the information load will get bigger. But for now I am grateful it seems doable. On top of getting the program started, my phone decided to become stubborn and pretty much paralyzed. It froze almost everytime I tried to use it, so I had to go to the Verizon store Thursday after class to get it fixed. Luckily it IS fixed, for now. We'll see..
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