Neurological Office Analysis

What was the most exciting thing that happened on each day of your clinical rotation? (5 pts)

What makes a Neurosurgeon? The money? The type of houses they get to live in? The places they get to go? The car they drive? Sure it could be all of those things. But what really makes a Neurosurgeon? Is it ambition? Is it courage? Is it the aspiration to save lives? Is it the reaction they get after a successful operation? Or is it a dream that they have dreamt of becoming a Neurosurgeon? Well, it's all of those things. I’ve dreamt of becoming a Neurosurgeon since I was in 6th grade. Ambition is one of my traits. I’ve always had the aspiration to help others, but to save lives that’s another level I want to achieve. The reaction I get when I do something great internally is something that I cannot explain. That’s a Neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeons are specialized physicians and their specialty is doing surgery on the Nervous System. Let’s look more in depth at becoming a Neurosurgeon.

1. This first clinic was a little intimidating. I mostly just shadowed some an older student today while he was interviewing patients. I felt like we have been well prepared to see patients though IPE and the standardized patients, however, knowing that these were real patients made it feel much different. Knowing that the patients had real problems and not knowing what to expect at first was the most anxious part.

Prior to walking in, my expectations for what I was about to partake in and experience were all over the place. I didn’t know whether to expect the absolute worst types of situations going on such as people being rushed into medical rooms or the most basic situations such as patients waiting for a strep throat test. I did expect to see a wide range of patients in terms of race, class, age, and gender. Contrary to the patients, I didn’t expect to see a wide range of race, class, age, and gender within the staff. I expected to see mostly female nurses, and male doctors, majority being Caucasian and middle age. I didn’t expect there to be that much security or any type of possible crime that could go on within a medical facility. I expected the waiting area and facility to be very large, large enough to accommodate a lot of patients at once. Lastly, I expected that taking our field notes would be a challenge because writing notes down in front of patients would be awkward and during interviews it would be hard to conduct a good interview while writing the whole time.

deliver patients medical records, and run errands for all of the Nursing Units, Radiology, Admitting, and the general offices. From this experience I exhibited characteristics such as responsibility, caring, and, trustworthiness. Most importantly from this experience I learned you can change a person’s entire day by simply sending a smile their way or offering assistance. The small things in life matter, and I was reminded to live everyday to its fullest, because you never

So I was at the Whitney Young clinic in Troy and I observed a Nurse Practitioner along with a Nurse practitioner student. I saw patents of all ages from infants to patients in their 70's. The day started off with a 4 year little girl who was not eating anymore because it hurt, turned out she had oral thrush, and a 14 year old who had gone zip lining Wednesday and had a muscle spasm in the lumbar region of her back. I saw quite a few muscle spams through out the day, and also got the chance to observe in diabetes management/education, as well being able to see what a ruptured eardrum looked liked compared to a normal one.

Patients would come in for a common cold or a broken foot, even though I have seen a lot of different cases, it was always interesting watching the clinical staff work with the patient to help them feel better. I appreciate both settings because I like seeing new random office visits and routine visits as well. As long as I’m helping someone feel better or see that a patient gets great care. I am able to adapt to any setting and learn procedures fast.

Did you know that there are about 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the brain (Neurologist 2011)? It is true, which is why neurosurgeons must take special care when operating procedures in this vital part of our body. Neurosurgeons, equally known as brain surgeons, specialize in the activities occurring in the brain and nervous system. Training to become a brain surgeon requires a 6-7 year neurosurgical residency following four years of medical school (citation). Brain surgeons primarily perform complex surgeries on the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves. Becoming a brain surgeon result in significant benefits such as they heal problems in one of the most complex parts of the body, the brain, they help all

The sound of the sirens were trapped in her head. Meanwhile, she sat in the emergency room waiting area praying for good news. “How did this happen?” she thought over and over again. After what seemed like forever, the neurosurgeon came out and broke the news to her and her family. Her father’s car accident had broken his spine in three different places, broke a couple of ribs, and left him bruised and scratched all over. The neurosurgeon said it was a miracle that he had no actual brain damage. The neurosurgeon operated on her father’s spine and put him back together with a rod. After the surgery, she couldn’t thank the neurosurgeon enough for all she had done for her father. From that day on, she knew she wanted to be a neurosurgeon so she could help people the way a neurosurgeon helped her father. Neurosurgeons are everyday heroes that have worked very hard to get to where they are, for this

By this time I could no longer ambulate! My first consult was a complete multidisciplinary check up; nerve conduction, blood work, respiratory therapy breathing capacity, as well as physical and occupational therapy evaluations, all on Halloween day. We were called to return to the clinic two days later; November 2, 2011, to receive the dreadful diagnosis of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). My reaction was, “well, at least I know now what I’m going to die from.” I was handed documentation to make legal arrangements and away we went.

Throughout my medical school, Neurological sciences have intrigued me most. First time I saw a human brain in gross anatomy I felt so thrilled. Being able to look n learn about one of the most complex humans organ was just exhilarating. I used to spend hours in the college library reading about neuroscience and other beginner’s concepts. During my medical school rotations, I was exposed to a wide range of neurological conditions. Being involved in care of such patients brought me a great sense of satisfaction. One such case that I vividly remember is Mrs T suffering from acute stroke. When I first saw her, she was lying on the bed, one half of her body paralyzed. I read his casefile and learned more about the patient. She was a successful lawyer, and overnight her life had changed following the stroke. But under the care of my amazing attending, within few months following the treatments and extensive physical therapy she regained 60% of her functioning and was expected to improve even more over course of time. This whole experience of her reclaiming her day to day life was an incredibly satisfying

Possible symptoms of a herniated disc include pain that radiates through the back and possible down the arms or legs, depending on the location of the herniation. There can also be noted numbness and weakness of the arms and neck. Some people may not even know that they have a herniated disc because not all cases present with leg or back pain. Other signs and symptoms of a herniated disc may include muscle spasms or deep muscle pain. In extreme cases, a patient may present with weakness in both legs and/or the loss of bladder control and bowel control. This is a serious problem called cauda equine syndrome and requires immediate medical attention.

After two years in plastic surgery, I decided that I wanted to do something different. As much as I enjoyed that field, I was ready to explore different horizons. My supervisor sent me to observe in neurosurgery because they were lacking nursing personnel. That specialty was horrifying everybody. The amount of work was heavy and most surgeons were intimidating. However I always loved a challenge and I decided to go for it. The surgeries were very demanding both physically and mentally. During spine surgeries, we had a lot of heavy instruments and often had to assist the surgeon by holding a retractor to keep the surgical site exposed. By the end of the day our hands were sore for the entire night. The

School nurses, Doctors and medical technicians, Oh my! Not many students appreciate what the school nurses do for us students, though for me in fifth grade they had changed my life, they discovered that my back was a little bit off, during the annual scoliosis check that most fifth graders go through. So as soon as my parents found out, we did some research to find the right doctor for me, he then told me that before we start to deal with the scoliosis, we should do a MRI to see if that's all that’s wrong with me. Now I meeting some Radiologist technicians for the very first time and being told to lie down and get a shot in my arm, so the x-rays can see my bones more clearly. Sometime after that we got a call saying that there’s some cysts in my spinal cord, we would then need to talk to a different specialist, we also had to get that fixed before we could correct the scoliosis.

I found the standardized Patient Encounters to be an insightful experience. It was very interesting, having been a nurse for a little over a year and I have developed my own way of assessing my patients and approaching problems. Experiencing standardized patient encounters after already having experience as a nurse gave me insight to as my areas of weakness as well as my strengths. It was an interesting work with new, adult patients, being I work with long term pediatric patients. I liked being able to ask the patients questions and have a conversation, which is something I don’t get to do often in the facility where I work. I also found it to be reenergizing, there are so many areas of nursing I have yet to explore and I am excited to see where my career takes me.