Spring Semester 2010

So I have started another semester...actually we started January 4th with only one class: Neuroscience. It sounds pretty dry but we have a great professor that makes the information very practical and fun. She allows us to ask all sorts of questions: i.e. why are some sounds soothing? We have looked at nerves throughout the body, including motor and sensory and the nerves to special senses (i.e. hearing). We have also looked at reflexes and then some of the pathology that goes along with all of these areas. It is very interesting. Neuroscience will end February 4th, which will be nice. One less thing on my plate! Considering this semester has 22 credit hours – anything off the plate helps!This semester we are doing something called "Lifespan" which means we will do rotations with newborns and the elderly. Each month is something different. This month, I start with volunteering. My program allows us to pick an area of interest and spend 20 hours helping out, but we have to work with people! We can't just sit in a corner stuffing envelopes :-) I have chosen to volunteer in my church nursery and help a friend in her Kindergarten classroom. I will also be helping at a soccer clinic for a local elementary school and possibly helping with a science day at a school in Colorado Springs. A lot of opportunities and I am looking forward to them!

My next rotation will be in parenting classes. It might sound odd but my program focuses on pediatrics. Many parents ask their health care provider for advice with child behavioral problems. I am not sure how these classes will go because I don’t agree with modern discipline techniques but I need to know what I am allowed to tell parents. It doesn’t mean I would have to treat my own kids, one day, like this.

After that I spend 2 weeks in Long-term care, 2 weeks in the nursery, and then 4 weeks in Palliative/hospice care. It will be nice to have something different each month, but my schedule will always be changing. That is life in the medical field though! I am most looking forward to the nursery. I love newborns and I look forward to doing assessments on them.