Partnering in Education

As my journey throughout my mentorship continues, I have met some of goals I had set in order to make the most out of this opportunity. I had met the goal of being able to learn medical terminology and have a brief conversation about it with my mentor and be able to interact with patients by performing tasks such as taking vitals. As my mentor and I continue to visit patients, we solemnly notice any critical conditions presented by the patient. Although we have had instances where we did need to contact specialists such as a cardiologist or geneticist, so the patients can get a better understanding the issue with someone who is an expert in their respective field. Cardiology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the heart as well as parts of the circulatory system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, heart failure, valvular heart disease and electrophysiology. Cardiologists are doctors who specialize in diagnosing and treating diseases or conditions of the heart and blood vessels—the cardiovascular system. I think the prospective idea of pursuing a career as a cardiologist is very interesting considering they help victims of heart disease return to a full and useful life and also counsel patients about the risks and prevention of heart disease and their skills and training are required whenever decisions are made about procedures such as cardiac catheterization, balloon angioplasty, or heart surgery. Genetics is a subset in biology where genes, heredity, mutation, genetic variation and the roles of genetics in aging and disease is studied. There are also several branches of genetics. A person who studies genetics is known as a geneticist while an environmental geneticist studies how environmental factors interact with genes to cause the various diseases or the adaptation of species to it. Some of the things a geneticist does is:study the inheritance of traits focusing on a molecular, organism, or population level, conduct experiments to determine the origin, mechanisms, and laws of inherited traits, analyzing determinants responsible for specific traits to understand the relationships between hereditary and factors such as fertility and maturity, treating patients who have a genetic disorder, trying to understand how certain environmental factors interact with genes to cause illness or disease, develop new methods to modify or generate new traits using chemicals, radiation, or any other means, genetic counselling, teaching future geneticists. I also think this speciality is quite interesting because of all different aspects correlating with genetics. To maximize my mentor's workload is a top priority, resulting in me gaining valuable time with her. I have filled out the upcoming days super bills which saves time. Additionally, I take my doctors notes while she examines her patients, so she has a more one-on-one interaction with her patient. Taking notes for my doctor also maximizes the time spent with each patient, so we work at a faster rate which in return allows me to ask her more questions and gain beneficial insight.