Week 1:
Children’s Hospital Colorado

June 18, 2014

This first week was a slow start. Since I am not affiliated with the University of Colorado compared to the other interns at the Children’s, it was quite confusing knowing when I was able to start and what required training/ meetings I had to attend. I was nervous that I would not be able to start in time to finish before August 1, since I need to be home for family reasons. However, everyone at Children’s  was very understandable and got me started once I finished my onboarding process.

The first time I saw the Children’s Hospital I was so overwhelmed. I had a hard time finding the security office to get my badge, however all the staff members were so friendly and willing to help. One woman offered to escort me, and I had a wonderful conversation with her about Hawaii and Costa Rica. The atmosphere at the Children’s does not seem to resemble a hospital at all, maybe it is because of the playful, colorful environment. The doctors and nurses seem very calm and happy. I witnessed some children smiling and laughing, even if they had a broken arm or was in a wheelchair. It was a very humbling experience. I know that some children are going through very serious, life-threatening illnesses, but since they are so young, they have that fun and exciting spirit.

This summer I will be working with Dr. Stoneback who specializes in Orthopaedic Surgery and two research assistants, Erin and Patrick. The aim for my project is to investigate the surgical outcomes and radiographic measurements to determine the efficacy of the submuscular plating versus other operative techniques (Titanium Elastic Nails and Trochanteric Entry Nails) when treating unstable femur fracture. My study is retrospective, therefore I will be reviewing patients records that received treatment for femoral fractures at the Children’s. I will be able to collect data, make charts, and analyze the results.

In addition, this first week consisted of a lot of reading to learn other retrospective studies that will be useful to design our project. Taking note of what was done, what needs to be done, and the possible variables we can compare. I was able to get an overall background of the different techniques for femur fractures, and get familiarized with the terminology. Being in a cubico and sitting behind a desk is quite a weird for me. Since I was out of school for almost a month, I need to learn how to stay focused, especially with the amount of reading that I have to do.

Lastly, there are a bunch of summer interns from Cornell here as well, working at the Anschutz medical campus. This weekend we went to hike the Flat Irons in Boulder. It was not a long hike, but the view was spectacular. Towards the afternoon, however, it started to rain, preventing us from walking around Pearl Street, a little shopping area. There is always next time though. I have a feeling that we will be hiking and exploring the mountains every weekend, because Colorado is beautiful!

I can’t wait to see what else this summer internship and Colorado has to offer!