This semester, I started working as a research associate in Parkland's Emergency Department. This past summer, during our Clinical Medicine I course, representatives from a program called the "Emergency Medicine Research Associate's Program" (or EMRAP) at Parkland came to speak with is about this new opportunity. As research associates, we work weekly four-hour shifts in the ED, shadowing the residents and evaluating patients for their eligibility to join the current clinical studies being done at the hospital. The two studies we evaluate patients for look specifically at closed head injury and congestive heart failure.
So far, it's been my third week at Parkland. They had trouble starting off the program this semester, with getting all our paperwork in, giving us badge access, and getting us access to EPIC, the electronic medical record system that they use here at Parkland and UTSW as a whole, so that's why it's only been my third shift here so far. However, even though I've only spent a total of twelve hours in the ED, I've seen a variety of interesting cases and been able to learn some things about medicine that I probably wouldn't have learned until medical school. Shadowing is such a great experience in my opinion and I feel really fortunate to have been given this opportunity. I'm definitely continuing this program next semester, and possibly next year as well, and I hope to be able to learn even more as time goes on.
No comments:
Post a Comment