As my classroom education winds down – I’m in the very last week of basic science classes now – I spent several days getting a glimpse of my future education. I headed to Seattle for the American Geriatrics Society’s annual meeting, where I had the chance to listen to several continuing-education presentations and help present a poster at a student-research session.

I like Seattle, and have friends and family there, so I was glad about the trip. But, frankly, I was not excited about the conference. I’ve been to plenty of professional development meetings in my previous work life, and found them to be mostly boring and repetitive.

I was pleasantly surprised. I listened to two main presentations, one about predicting how long older patients can expect to live, one about how to care for patients with multiple chronic illnesses.  The sessions were interesting and informative, even though some of the ideas I heard were repeats of information I’ve already learned. Maybe that’s because I’m still so new to medicine that I need many reminders to retain facts. Maybe it’s a sign that I’ve found the right area of interest for me. Whatever the reason, I don’t dread having to attend such meetings to get my continuing education credits as a doctor. In fact, I’m looking forward to learning more at future events.

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Last week saw OHSU’s first Research Week, a whole week dedicated to guest speakers, poster sessions, and presentations from all different fields here at OHSU.  A chance for all the researchers here on the hill to see what other work is being done, and an opportunity to highlight the importance of the research community as a whole.  Obviously as a PMCB grad student I think every week should be research week, since I can’t imagine anything being more important than what we do.  I had thought that this was a given, that everything on campus (and no doubt the rest of the world) revolved around our work, but apparently we also have a hospital and a medical school here. I guess I should get out of the lab a bit more often.

Other than spotlighting research, it was also a great opportunity to see how varied the work here is.  I’ve always thought of this campus as very small and interconnected, so I was surprised to see all the variety in talks and posters for projects I had never heard of.  Everything from public health, to infant brain scans, to statistics covering the causes of bike accidents.  It was great to see what’s going on in the medical, clinical, and patient care sides of the hospital, and how interconnected we all are.  I even found myself interested in some of the dental school posters (and I’m normally terrified of dentists, not dentistry per se, just dentists).

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I can hardly believe Week 6 just ended of Spring Quarter.  Where has the time gone?  And how much more will I have to do before summer arrives?!

This quarter has allotted the Junior nursing students a LOT of freedom.  I love independence; so naturally, this quarter is a good fit for me.  All of my extra time spent usually in the classroom has been replaced with community activities.  It has also warranted the opportunity for me to seek out extracurricular activities.  I have been fortunate enough to venture out to Hood River for the ONA conference, attend Oregon’s Pediatric Nurse Practitioner’s conference at Doernbecher , and also listen in on research week up on the hill.  I have a feeling that seeking out these sorts of extracurricular activities will expose me to not only more nursing opportunities, but also let me expand my knowledge beyond the classroom setting.

One of the sessions at the Oregon Pediatric Nurse Practitioner conference was on the topic of poverty.  It was empowering and eye-opening to listen to Dr. Donna Beegle speak about her own struggles living in poverty, and how nurses and other medical personnel alike have the opportunity to treat everyone with dignity and respect.  My favorite points from her discussion included:

• Treat EVERY human being like they are special.
• Find common ground- share information, as well as something about you.
• To communicate in poverty as healthcare provider, get back into a natural way of connecting through emotions/touch/word-of-mouth stories.

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There is a bird building a nest in the birdhouse outside. I know this because I have watched him single handedly destroy two hanging baskets and borrow several silk flowers from the wreath on the door. With all of this to watch, who has time for study?  Spring does this to me every year. I find myself so enthralled with the arrival of sunshine and life that my coursework begins to feel like those winter clouds, always hanging over my head. I begin each winter fired up and by spring term I have mastered the art of procrastination. Is it burnout or is it sunburned? The answer is C, all of the above.

This is why I love the internet wonders of Sakai. I recently discovered that my router has the capability of picking up a signal from outside the house. Say no more!  Since several of my lectures and videos are online, I conveniently played them while simultaneously enjoying the weather and watching the bird. I also began to see some parallels to my life as a nursing student and the season of building nests.

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Signing up for a presentation at OHSU Research Week was, for me, a no-brainer. Having spent time in two of the most presentation-heavy graduate programs here at OHSU (Biomedical Informatics & Behavioral Neuroscience), I have given approximately infinitely many research talks since I began my journey as an OHSU graduate student back in 2005. These days, public speaking in front of an audience comes slightly easier to me than speaking one-on-one (sadly, my girlfriend won’t let me build a lectern in her living room, though, to be fair, I haven’t pressed the issue much). I’ve given terribly misguided research talks, like my controversial “Where is Western Blot?” & I’ve given some real crowd-pleasers too, like my oft-cited lecture, “The Circle of Willis & the Circle of Life.” I know what it is to utterly fail in public, & what it’s like to teach a group of people something new & interesting—not much surprises me up on stage these days.

But it was more than my proclivity for public address that made me want to participate in the OHSU Research Week festivities. See, here at OHSU we’ve got a bit of an obsession for themed weeks. I was reflecting on this today, which happens to fall during Integrity Week. Standing in my office area, decorating my department’s Integrity Fern with the other Biomedical Informatics students, & having a second helping of the traditional Integrity Spinach Salad, I wondered—should I organize a ‘_____ Week’ Intervention Week? Heath Care Equality Week, Nurses Week, Head & Neck Cancer Awareness Week—the list does go on & on, to be sure.

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Color! Color! Color is all around! The blossoms are falling, the rhododendrons and camellias blooming, and the MacHall fountain providing riparian-esque entertainments.  All these happenings, in addition to the odd sun/rain/snow/hail phenomena periodically expressing itself, suggest that Spring is finally here and Summer just around the metaphorical corner. For me, these seasonal changes are energizing. Just as there is inherent catharsis when walking in the rain, so too exists inherent rejuvenation in the sensory overload that is mid-Spring. Dazzling reds and pinks, mixed with seductive fragrances of jasmine and lilac, all while splashed in glorious sunlight serve as nature’s lemondrop martini in this prelude to Summer.

For scientists and students, such sensory indulgences act as sources of inspiration and rejuvenation. Dis-spell that image of the scientist with pale skin and perpetually dilated eyes living in her lab and never seeing the light of day. Rebuff the notion that scientists can only wax poetic on proteins and cells, but not music or art. Rebel at the social misconception that to be a true student means shutting yourself away from the natural world. That is not to say students should not immerse themselves in their craft – they should! Library and bench times are essential. But at certain points one must “sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind,” as H.D. Longfellow so eloquently wrote, if one is to bring creative inspiration to his work.

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As our class moves into Spring term we have gotten a unique opportunity to involve ourselves in the community. Klamath County has received funds to do research to better understand what the largest health disparities in the county are. There are several stakeholders in this effort to better our community and it has been put on our class to go out to many of the smaller surrounding towns around Klamath Falls and collect data. This is pretty challenging, since we have to first survey the area for what we can see and then begin to approach people in the community in an effort to form focus groups. We will lead these focus groups to get people talking about what they see is lacking or where there are higher rates of disease in their community. What’s tricky about this is that preconceived notions of what we believe to be a deficit might not be viewed that way for the locals. Knowing how to choose our words to ensure trust from these individuals that might not be welcoming to outsiders is another challenge.

My group was assigned to a small town near the California border that has no government of its own, no police station, no fire station, and on and on.

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Participating in the OHSU iCHEE program this term has been a real eye-opener. I learned a lot of little things that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise thought about. I really enjoyed meeting other students, OHSU faculty, and clients. I found that the multi disciplinary approach worked really well—and I loved working with my team. Everyone drew on their field of knowledge, and together we were able to answer the questions of the clients pretty well. I also really liked the fact that iCHEE is not a clinic—the emphasis was really on talking to your client, getting to know them as a person, and then seeing if there was anything we could do to help them

Team Focus: One of my favorite things about the iCHEE program is that you work in groups from the very beginning. It was great to meet other students from all the schools at OHSU—everyone had different backgrounds, interests, and education level. For example, my group had a first year med student, third year pharmacy student, third year dental student, and me (a third year nursing student)… so we had a whole mix of experience.

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Health Care Equality Week culminated in a health screening fair on March 11, 2012, at O’Bryant Park in conjunction with PotLuck in the Park. This was the 5th Annual health screening fair (formerly called Cover the Uninsured Week), and 275 underserved Oregonians had a chance to receive health screenings and see physicians. Many Oregonians shared their personal health stories with students filming for the Voices And Concerns of the Uninsured & Underinsured Millions (VACUUM) Project.

Thanks to all the sponsors: Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon State University, Portland State University, Aveda Institute, PotLuck in the Park, Oregon Medical Association, Oregon Academy of Family Physicians, Multnomah County Health Dept, Ace Hotel, DFF Dental Laboratory, O’Brien Dental Laboratory, and Payless LTC.

Services were provided by students from the OHSU schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy, from the Aveda Institute, the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine, and PSU. Physicians and dentists from OHSU also provided care.

Watch video here.

Filmed by Tymberly Ellis-Field and Rachel Jablonski
Music by ONUINU, “Ice Palace”

Model patients. That small sentence almost implies that there is supposed to be an ideal that our patients are working towards, but actually it is more descriptive of part the training medical students receive here at OHSU.

3 times a year in our first two years, we don our professional attire and white coats in order to take histories and perform physical exams on actors trained to portray an illness or injury.

This training emphasizes the ritualistic side of medicine: as we learn to not stumble over introducing ourselves as doctors we also learn to perform the basic acts of the physical examination. Similar to playing a musical instrument, we are practicing putting together all of the necessary elements in our own ways.

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