Week 6:
University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

March 1, 2013

Friday, Feb. 22. So today is the big day, the one that I’ve been waiting for this entire internship.  Today’s the day I get to see a full-length participant interview for Dr. Dindo’s husband’s (Dr. Calarge) lab.  The opportunity was originally offered to me by Dr. Dindo at this Monday’s meeting, after I had expressed wanting to interact with more people.  Granted, it comes at the cost of doing “hard labor” (i.e. data entry) for the Calarge lab, which I have a feeling will be more than worth it.

Location: Medical Education Building, Calarge Lab
Time: 1:30PM

So the RA and I have to meet the participant at 1:45, but I was asked to arrive at 1:15 so that we could prepare beforehand.  For me, this preparation meant grabbing a giant binder that contained all the information for the one participant.  Which might not seem like much, until one remembers that this binder contains the information of just one of manyparticipants.  Maybe data entry won’t be as simple as I thought.

Location: General Hospital, Enterance
Time: 1:45PM

We met with the participant.  For the sake of their privacy, I can’t go into details about what they acted or looked like or even what their gender was – although, for the sake of convenience, I will refer to them as “him,” and I will say that he seemed rather nice.

Location: General Hospital, Clinical Psychology Wing
Time: 2:00PM

We got to the clinical psychology wing (where the interview would take place) and dropped the participant off to get some blood drawn for testing.  Meanwhile, the RA and I went to set up a room, and I was able to ask her about the study some more, in particular why so much data was being recorded.   In short, the Calarge lab studies the effect common anti-depressants have on bone growth and degeneration in adolescents, as hindering this bone growth could risk early osteoporosis later in life.

Time: 2:30 PM

The RA ran through the basic interview questions with the participant.  Most of this was her just reading surveys word for word, which, while not the most stimulating, provided good insight as to the breadth of information the Calarge lab collects.  One of the computer surveys was also narrated by a penguin.  I didn’t quite understand that one.

Time: 3:30 PM

Before the RA began with her LIFE interview, Dr. Calarge came in to talk with the participant.  It seemed like a completely average conversation, which is why I was so surprised with all of the insights and observations Dr. Calarge mentioned after the interview ended.  I caught only one of them.

Time: 4:00 PM

At this time, the RA began the one-hour LIFE interview with the participant.  The LIFE interview covers the participant’s life for the past few months and has the goal of both collecting information and measuring for various psychiatric issues on both the clinical and subclinical level.  Much like Dr. Calarge’s interview, this one was very casual, and only at certain points did it feel like the conversation was deliberately directed one way or the other in order to uncover specific information.

Location: Medical Education Building, Dindo Lab
Time: 5:00PM

I think I’m starting to understand why people have gotten so fascinated with Sherlock Holmes lately.  At the end of the interview I felt that we had talked to an average guy with average problems.  And there’s a good chance that was just the case.  However, that would only be because “average” encompasses an awful lot more than most people let off.  It was mesmerizing to listen to the RA as they discussed all their insights about the participant that stemmed from such small details.  Not only did I have trouble noticing the details, I could not piece them together nearly to the degree the RA was able to.  The possibility of having an insight even half as good as that is fascinating to me, especially as all of these insights come simply from conversing with someone and hearing their stories.

Next Week: A tour throughout the one area of the Hospitals and Clinics I have not yet described.