Week 3:
University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

February 8, 2013

Part 1 – What I’ve been doing

So I started out week three with three main projects: read and critique the book ACT with love, read some of a seminar transcript (see part 2), and continue my literature search (which I’m pretty far-along in, assuming that what I think a literature search is is actually what a literature search is).

I ended week three with eight main projects:

• The original three
• Create a consort diagram for Dr. Dindo’s current research (see part 2)
• Perform various forms of analysis on the data used to screen applicants for research and determine whether or not they were eligible (which is what monopolized the majority of my third week)
• Make a hard-copy folder of all the files a new research assistant would need coming into Dr. Dindo’s lab
• Perform Data Entry
• If requested (which it hasn’t been yet), send an email to ineligible applicants informing them that they are not eligible for the study.

Part 2 – Why I’ve been doing it

As I briefly mentioned in my post for the first week, the research I am assisting with concerns using a one-day Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)-oriented group therapy to assist those suffering from depressive symptoms and vascular disease (or, at least, those at high risk for vascular disese).  The therapy is very similar to one used in another pilot study by Dr. Dindo concerning depression and migraines (One-day behavioral treatment for patients with comorbid depression and migraine: A pilot study by Dindo, L. et. al.).  Up to this point, Dr. Dindo has performed two of these six-hour group therapy sessions, one of which was on Saturday, January 26.  It took a few months to prepare, and I have little doubt that the next session will take a few months to prepare, as well.

Part 3 – What I hope to do later

However, while I still have a lot to work on, the fact that I’m here 9 hours a day Monday through Friday for 8 weeks means I have some freedom on what I can do.  I have been informed that, in the upcoming weeks, I will be able to view patient visits in another lab which (if I remember correctly) works more with families and children instead of individuals.  I’m very excited.

Summary and thoughts: These past two weeks certainly have had a lot more activity than the first two, although I’m glad that I had a solid foundation of understanding to work off of.  However, after four weeks, I do feel like I’ve spent too much time in the same room, both while working and while not working.  Hopefully in these next four weeks, both work and personal action will allow me see more of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Iowa City itself.

Next Week:  An entirely picture-oriented blog post.  I considered putting up some photos in this post, but I thought that after three weeks, I had enough material to warrant its own separate post.

Random ACT Insight: While not specifically an ACT book, Viktor Frankl’s autobiography Man’s Search for Meaning, which takes place primarily in a concentration camp in the 1940s, has been referenced multiple times in things might go terribly, horribly wrong and ACT with love, and every time it’s mentioned, a different (but equally intriguing) story is told.  I need to read this book.