Roughly three months have passed since we started the program and already, I am deep in piles of note cards and print out lectures. This notion can reflect the amount of information we are learning. However, there comes an excitement when I see a drug we learned in class in the outside world. Each time a member of my family is prescribed a new drug, the past lecture had recently mentioned it.

 As we approach the end of the month, we approach the end of the autonomic nervous system and cardio vascular block. Since much of the faculty have experience with cardio vascular, the lectures were filled with meaningful real world details and relevance. During this block, we were taught to read EKGs and determine how a set of drugs can affect blood pressure and heart rate in beneficial or harmful ways. In the next few weeks, we will be working with medical students in simulator studies.

Yesterday, I started my first day of volunteering at Ochsner. Originally, the plan was to help in the clinical research labs there, but due to schedule conflicts around school, I wasn't able to. Instead, I was assigned to patient care in the ER. It was the first time I stepped in an ER and I can say it is hectic. The first day I arrived happened to be a busy night according to the triage nurse on duty, so I was not properly informed of duties and the layout of the area. At first, I found it difficult to adjust and navigate around the ER, but as the night went on, I began becoming used to it. My main duties were to assist the triage nurse and the nurse tech, which can be tasks from moving paperwork between the administration and them to escorting patients to their designated areas. A person can learn a lot volunteering there such as the different procedures and protocols. I spent four hours yesterday and today in the ER.

Total hours 8.