Week 3:
Geriatrics & Me

June 12, 2017

In the beginning of the week I got to shadow another MD! This time it was a geriatric psychiatrist. Since geriatrics is basically my dream field, this was a great opportunity to say the least. It was very interesting because the doctor was doing ‘telepsychiatry’ today, so we were doing visits via a secure version of Skype. She phones into a nursing home, and sees patient after patient. This is actually part of some fund for rural Iowans to be able to have access to psychiatrists, which is pretty neat. I think about my small town and the nursing homes there, and I’m certain so many folks would benefit from being able to meet with an actual psychiatrist, rather than just their primary care doctor. So, I was impressed with this initiative. Someday as an MD, I really hope that maybe I could set up a program to either provide people in need with medical care, or just folks with limited access.

The doctor talked with several patients as well as with their family and nurse. Some weren’t responsive, some were, and a couple even cracked a few jokes and smiles. It just reminded me how much I love the geriatric population. They have such a soft spot in my heart. I want to do all I can to advocate for them and help make their lives more comfortable. And to help them smile, of course.

Another thing I learned was about memory loss patients and what their MRI images look like. This is very informative for me from a hospice volunteer standpoint, as I work primarily with memory loss patients. Along with that, I learned is that nursing home residents’ doctors must actively try to lower their medications several times because there’s been so many instances of residents being over medicated so they were easier to take care of, which is so sad. I found this very interesting because I have heard some people say that psychiatrists just put you on a bunch of medication, but in reality, they (or most of them) are just trying to get you on something that works and get you off as many meds as possible. This doctor really showed me what being a psychiatrist is all about, and even though I never considered it before, now I do think geriatric psychiatry would be an option for me. I always knew I loved geriatrics, but now seeing how personal and how well you can connect with patients through psychiatry, it seems like a field that might be a good choice for me.

The rest of the week was a bit crazy, with lots of participants for the research studies going on, including a new one that the new medical student in the lab is conducting. Thanks to Cornell Summer Research Institute, where I conducted research with a partner and under a new professor a couple summers ago, I know how challenging starting up new research projects can be. This is no surprise to me that this first week of having participants for the new study has been bumpy. Naturally, equipment malfunctions, you run out of time in a day, and other things of the like. What matters is that by the end of the week, things were starting to run more smoothly, and we were able to get the data we needed for the study!