Capstone Reflection

One time, I was taken aback and saddened by a patient yelling a plea to God as she was suffering through tremendous pain. As I walked into the room, the first thing this patient did was stop yelling and attempt to put on a calm face. It was a sobering moment, but I proceeded to ask her if I could do anything to help. What struck me most about this moment, was how much fight this lady could conjure up to hide her pain and yet still remain compassionate towards me. I hadn't expected anything, but this experience was a brilliant reminder of why I wanted so badly to improve the conditions of patients across the medical spectrum. I couldn't fathom the extent of this patient's pain, but I could fathom the idea of pain itself. In the patient, I saw a little bit of myself. I wanted to help this patient greatly and desired the means to do so. In this patient, I saw the nature of humanity. Human beings, for the most part, are inherently good and strive to be selfless even at their weakest moments. In fact, most people I know tend to be more worried about others than themselves, whether it be from a positive or negative perspective. As I got to know this patient, I realized how much she wanted to be with her family and see her grandchildren grow up. Though she was aware of the pain and suffering, she was also aware of what could be once she got through this struggle. Once I become a medical doctor, I can give back

Throughout my clinical experiences, there have been quite a few circumstances I have been placed in that have remained with me whether good or bad. All of them have been learning experiences for me whether it is how to improve and to do better next time from a mistake, for me to learn that this is or is not how a patient should be treated, how to handle family situations, and many others. One experience that I was able to participate in that will remain with me because I had not experienced this before was during my critical care rotation in the fall of 2015. This patient was dying and we were implementing comfort care for him.

This paper is a personal reflection of Team Erie’s performance in Phase One of Capsim.

This week in class we learned about some basic facts about loss, the journey of dying in America, how life expectancy has changed over the years and some examples of how they have changed, we went through some questions like why to study grief and loss, how there is a lack of training for those helping professionals, different settings in which grief can be encountered as well as experiences that could generate reactions, and the benefits of training in loss and grief. Talking about these things made me feel more comfortable with the situation of loss. It also made me feel sad when people share their experiences for some reason. I guess I am more of an emotional person than I thought when it comes to death and dying and usually I just try

People die everyday all over the world. In United States, people use hundreds of different words to describe death. Generally, people that grow up in the United States tend to view death as a taboo subject and are seen as a topic that should be kept behind closed doors and contracted with an individual or family. A belief system that so many individuals hold to be true has been shaped over the past century. In this culture, death has become something that is enormously feared and as a result, some people stop living their lives to his or her highest potential because of their fear of dying. The effect that death has pertains to individuals of all ages, gender and ethnicities. But unfortunately, how death is viewed it has become more and

When volunteering at a hospital, I felt like I was one of the PA students that were doing their clinical rotations in the surgery clinic. When the PA students had conversations about interesting surgical cases, I always joined them. Every time they went to the operating room, I felt left out because I was just a volunteer and was not allowed in the

During the first week of my undergraduate shadowing career I had an experience that dramatically shaped my ideology of what it meant to work in healthcare. I was shadowing a physician at Medina Community Hospice Care as well as the nurse practitioner that worked with him. Most mornings started with the medical team reviewing the patient charts and discussing the events that had happened during the night. It was an atmosphere where the passing of an individual was marked not as a tragedy, but a beautiful occurrence that was characterized by a wide range of emotions. These were truly

I began volunteering at the Hospital for Special Surgery, to get an overview of what is is like to work at a hospital. Volunteering at a hospital was an eye opening experience, because I got to encounter how physicians, and medical staff communicate, and listen to their patients. These two skills are essential to understand patient needs, and therefore make the right decisions in diagnosing diseases. My role at the hospital was to provide snacks, beverages, and aid kits to patients, families, and medical staff. I have witnessed families that stayed up long nights, because they had loved ones undergo surgery. Any person that has a loved one undergo surgery becomes worried and scared, because of the uncertainty that lies ahead. However, the imperative skills that I have learned and exceeded on was my communication skills. Communicating with these families, and patients was exceedingly important, because you have to place yourself in their shoes to understand the situation they are in. I met young patients, as young as 5 years old, that were in the hospital for days recovering from surgery, or undergoing

What experience have you had that has given you insight into the patients you hope to eventually serve? (1500 characters)

My purpose for graduate study is two-fold: a) to advance my present career in forensic toxicology and b) to further my knowledge in the forensic discipline. Currently, as a forensic toxicologist at the Nassau County Medical Examiner, I have been exposed to nearly all facets of post-mortem and human performance forensic toxicology. Every single day is an intellectual challenge, whether it involves obtaining and interpreting a peculiar set of results, or troubleshooting one of the many instruments we use, I go into work every day knowing that I am going to learn something new about my field. Forensic Toxicology combines what I have always loved about science and medicine with constant intellectual stimulation and a burning desire to answer the

In terms of sales and marketing, we adapted our strategy based on how the products played in each segment. Our strategy was to spend efficiently in marketing & sales to keep the customer awareness and accessibility high for the premium products, while maintaining a decent level of awareness and accessibility in other segments.

This capstone course has helped me to tie together all the classes I have taken thus far in the program as well as helped me to identify what skills and knowledge I need to continue working on. The capstone presentation, as well as class, helped me to practice strength-based language and be conscious of how I describe my client’s when presenting. It can be a habit to use negative language to describe a problem-saturated story and unintentionally describe a patient’s story in a way that comes off as stigmatizing. This class helped me become conscious and tactful of how I word sensitive circumstances. It was a great experience to present my patient’s case to the class and practice being thoughtful on how I portrayed my patient’s presenting

My passion for working in health care stems from my desire for trying to create a positive impact and difference in someone’s life. Who does this more in the health field than nurses? I have had the opportunity to work as an EMT, a Personal Care Assistant, and as a Nurse Assistant. In these roles, I would always witness nurses leading and being the first to create a relationship with a patient. Creating a relationship with a patient is what I enjoy immensely about working in medicine. When I would work as an EMT I would always try to create some kind of rapport with the patient to help them feel more at ease and to show them their concerns matter to me, even if it might not be a life-threatening emergency, it can easily feel that way to the

Capstone class is the final process for graduation. The workload was intense, but it was a learning experience. Working under a short time frame was rewarding, challenging, and manageable. This has shown me that I can complete an assignment under pressure and in a short time frame. The topic that my group presented on was informative where knowledge can be used for future references. The first and second week everyone on the team was participating and helping each other out. However, that started to change in week three.

After graduation in May, I will be attending Ohio Northern University in the fall of 2016, to pursue a bachelor’s degree in forensic biology, earning a major in forensic science, biology, and a minor in chemistry. After graduation from Ohio Northern University, I hope to be able to attend the University of Toledo for graduate school, to gain my master’s degree in biology. Also after graduating from Ohio Northern University in 2020 I hope to find a job as a forensic scientist, and after graduating from graduate school I hope to find a career with the Federal Bureau of Intelligence as working as a forensic