Week 4:
The Children’s Hospital

June 19, 2013

This week has consisted of me continuing to collect data from chart reviews. Once I am done collecting data, I will focus on finishing up the radiographic measures. Something different this week is that I have been working almost completely independently. My fellow research assistant was awarded an opportunity to study disparities in healthcare in Chicago for most of the summer. I am very excited for her, but this has meant that my work has been extremely independent. I check in with her via e-mail or by phone every other day or so, and I check in with my faculty advisor about twice a week. Other than that, it’s up to me to set the pace for how quickly I work. I feel like I am getting into a daily routine and have learned to pace myself fairly well. It has taken awhile to collect all of the data, but I am close to being done with data collection. However, I will still need to finish several radiographic measurements, which I presume might take me a few days. The hardest part about working so independently is that I am not sure if I am ahead of schedule, on schedule, or behind schedule. My goal for the internship is to finish all data collection and radiographic measurements, finish data analysis, and have an abstract written before I leave. I have been trying to set weekly goals for myself and force myself to reach them. The beauty of working so independently, however, is I feel like I am really gaining an in-depth understanding of the data I am collecting. I am excited to see what the statistical analysis shows.

In addition to working on my project, I have also been able to do some shadowing. Yesterday I followed one of the orthopedic surgeons during his clinic days. It was exciting because I saw a large variety of spinal defects at various stages. For example, I saw one patient who had just previously been referred by their primary care physician for mild scoliosis, which will be monitored by the doctors for now. Then, I saw a patient whose scoliosis had become severe enough to require bracing. The goal of bracing is not to straighten out the spine, but rather to prevent the curve from progressing to avoid surgery. Another patient I saw had a curve that had progressed (and was continuing to progress) to a severity which required a spinal fusion. I have read a lot about spinal fusions, but it was different being in the room with a patient and their parents who had to decide if this major surgery was right for them. Once the doctor said surgery was the next step, the room became very silent. I had read so much about this surgery from an academic point of view, but I hadn’t stopped to think about what a major ordeal this is to a patient, and how scary it can be. I saw another patient who was coming in for pre-surgery preparation, as their surgery was scheduled to occur within the next few days. At this meeting, the patient was taught all of the details about what to expect before, during, and after surgery. The PA who met with the patient was very kind and understanding. I could tell the patient felt much more comfortable after meeting with the PA. Lastly, I got to see several patients who had undergone spinal fusion in the past, and it was encouraging to see many of them were doing quite well. I also saw various other types of cases, but those related to spinal fusion surgery particularly stuck out to me since my research is related to this particular surgery. It was very helpful to put faces and names to a surgery I had read so much about. My day of shadowing was very exciting, and continued to reaffirm my desire to become a doctor. It was also nice to take a break from the research aspect of my project, and observe from a clinical perspective.