Additional Blog Post (August)

My Summer Mentorship:

For my summer mentorship, I volunteered at the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in the Catherization Lab (Cath Lab). On my first day, surprisingly there was a Code Gray. This means that there is a combative person in the hospital. The Code Gray actually took place right in front of me in the Cath Lab. There was this woman who just came out of surgery and she was threatening to walk out of the Cath Lab. She kept refusing medication and was very aggressive. Eventually four security guards came inside to restrain her. Later on, she signed this paper which basically said that she refuses medical advice and that the doctors' are not responsible for her health and well-being and then she left. It was funny because the nurses said that it had been a very long time since they had a Code Gray in the Cath Lab and it just so happened that when I come on my first day, the Code Gray happens. Well other than that, I was introduced to a nurse, JiJi, who was really nice and helped out throughout my summer mentorship. I was introduced to the director of the Cath Lab, Debby Keasler, who told me that a little about the Cath Lab in that it wasn't just about Cardiology anymore, it was inter-twined now with many aspects of science, including Electro-physiology, multiple systems of the human body, etc. She told me that I should research into it a little so I can understand it. I met a few other nurses. Another significant nurse I met was Josefina, who gave me work to do for the day such as make copies and do discharges. I also met this one guy nurse, whose name was Robert or Chris, sorry I can't remember. It was his first day in the Cath Lab as well and he was actually a student still, I believe in his residency. He normally worked in the mental ward he told me.

For my second day of mentorship, I made more copies. I also did something new, I was actually checking people's bills to make sure that it was correct. I was really shocked by seeing the bills and how over-priced everyone's bills were. I learned some valuable information when I inquired about it, which I am not sure if I am allowed to reveal, so I will not reveal it. But I will give advice from it, which is always have insurance! When I was checking for mistakes, I found this one huge mistake which was that this one guy got charged an extra 80k! The reason was because his operation cost 40k, but he got charged that operation 3x which resulted in his bill being over 120k. Thank God I caught that because that would have been horrible for him.

For my 3rd and last day of mentorship, I did the same things as the other 2 days. But this time, I actually got to meet my future mentor, Dr. Muthiah. I spoke to him for a few minutes and through that, thank God I was able to get him as my mentor. Many nurses and also my volunteer director recommended him to be my mentor because he had a good character and he was the youngest cardiologist around as well. I haven't seen him since my last day of summer mentorship, but I will meet him again September 4th, 2014. I will discuss with him about my mentorship component and senior project.

Thank you for reading this.
Well see you next time on the Extra Blog Posts!