Blog 8

1. What are the main factors of a successful angioplasty procedure?

• A factor for a successful angioplasty would be the knowledge of the coronary arteries. How can you navigate the heart without knowing which arteries to enter or what artery contains the blockage.
• Sanitation is a key component in every invasive procedure but most crucial dealing with a vital organ. The key to cleanliness is sterilization and temperature monitoring of the environment, keeping it cool.   

3. My most valuable source would have to be a duo. I have a source of a medical article called "Angioplasty with Stent Placement for Heart Attack and Unstable Angina" which focuses on the principles of angioplasty and stenting and "Coronary Anatomy and Blood Flow" which deals with the hearts blood circulation and anatomy with precise names and locations.

4. My mentor is Oralia Aragon, nurse practitioner of the Cardiology Department at Keck Hospital at USC. She deals with patients that have had angioplasties and other procedures for the heart as well as other parts of the body, diagnosing and informing the patients of what is going on.

Independent Component Approval 1

1. I plan on following my mentor all over the hospital and shadow her schedule and learn about different types of invasive procedures of the heart and coronary arteries and eventually start to assist her.
2. Oralia Aragon, my mentor, has agreed to let me shadow her and during the process, we go to every floor looking for patients on her roster that need attention. Before we enter the room, she briefs me on what is wrong with patient and what it means in simpler form. When we enter the room, she introduces me and then she goes through with the patient the things they need to know. When we finish our round helping patients, she sits me down in her office and she has me look at angiograms. Angiograms are x-rays of the coronary arteries using a dye that shows up in the blood stream. I look for legions or clots and look at the final comments the doctors have said pertaining to the angiogram and see if my findings match theirs and go back for correction.
3. Following a nurse practitioner that works in Pulmonary functions lab is already a great qualification as a mentor. Doing check ups on the patients is even a learning opportunity for people who have had invasive coronary surgery.

Extra Blog 2

So far the mentorship has been great. I've met a lot of new people and lots of different doctors and nurses. My jobs have changed slightly in that I get to change and clean the patients telemetry meters. Telemetry meters motor for any abnormal heart fluctuation and are defined as v-tack or ventricle tachycardia. Last Tuesday though, I received my mentor, Oralia Aragon NP, and I followed her literally everywhere to check on patients who had heart problems. She talked me through what they do and different jobs she has then at the end of the day, she had me look at angiograms and spot the clots and legions. It was really easy yet very hard since your looking at a screen of a heart in an x-ray with dye going through the heart'veins looking for clots. The difficulty is that the veins are less then a centimeter thick and the clots are white while the vein is black. Sounds easy, right? Try looking for them as the heart beats at abnormally fast rates, trying to get blood evenly throughout the heart. It was challenging but I loved it. The cool thing is that I saw the results and diagnostics of the angiogram with all of the locations of the clots and I was completely right. Cant wait for next Tuesday!!

Blog 6: Second Interview

1. My mentor's name is Aurelia Aurora NP. She works at Keck Medical Center of USC.

2. What kind of training or background is necessary for this type of work?
How did you get this career, and what kinds of experiences and preparation helped the most? 
What are the responsibilities in this position? 
What kind of changes, do you see coming, in this line of work? 
What personal qualities or abilities, are important for doing well in this kind of work?

Blog 5 Project Reflection and Working EQ

The Pentagon:

1. The most positive and self fulfilling thing I've done so far is secure a position as a volunteer at Keck Medical Center of USC. I get to work hand in hand with nurses and doctors creating a great environment for the development of my topic and EQ.

EQ Content:

2. My first interview was with a nurse practitioner who knew a lot about the field of cardiology. A tip she gave me was that cardiology is not just one thing. It involves the whole body so focusing on cardiology is too vague and that i should get specific by either looking for a certain common procedure. I thought that would be very interesting so now I'm looking into surgical procedures in cardiology. 

3. I think the thing that has worked so far in my senior project would be my volunteering at Keck Medical. I have the possible opportunity to get a very helpful mentor.

4. I think the thing that hasn't worked so far would be the deciding of how to create my true topic and finding research and things as specific as, for example, angioplasty.

Finding Value:

-What makes a angioplasty surgery go successful?

-I plan on finding a mentor and having them teach me the basics of angioplasty and hopefully allow me to do sit ins during surgeries. I don't have a mentor but I've been talking to the nurse practitioner of the cardiology department, Orelia  Aurora, to help me find a mentor. It will most likely be a resident.

Mentorship So Far...

So my mentorship has been going great at Keck Medical Center at USC. I've helped so many patients and nurses and even the doctors. My first day, August 13, was so confusing. I answered phone calls and transferred them to their desired receivers. I discharged a patient who had a open heart surgery and translated in Spanish for two kidney doctors for a patient on dialysis. My schedule is every Tuesday 2-6pm every week and I hope i can get more days and longer shifts. The most interesting thing I've done by far was feed a patient. Vernon McDonald is blind in his right eye and has 20% vision in his left eye. He's had a quadruple heart bypass and has had his feet amputated due to diabetes. As I was feeding him, he talked about his life and how he lived. He was a stove maker in the City of Industry. It was a cool experience because he opened up and was comfortable with me. I feel that comfort is key in this business, that and communication.

Interview Prep.

1. I plan on interviewing my supervisor, Evelyn. She has many years working at USC Keck Hospital and knows how a hospital should work and what it takes to have a department at its most successful. I plan on also interviewing various nurses and doctors since they know how nurse and doctor cooperation really matters in a hospital work place.
2. What are some successful traits the hospital has in regards to teamwork?
How active are the doctors and nurses in this department?
Does each department vary in work load?
What are some ways to overcome problematic situations with a patient?