My Shadowing Experience In Medicine

“Thank you.” This was the simple yet meaningful response a patient’s husband gave to the emergency physician as I observed from the corner of the room. It was determined through a plethora of laboratory studies and clinical intuition that the patient was suffering from hepatorenal syndrome, secondary to her battle with metastatic colorectal cancer that spread to her liver. Her husband knew the prognosis, but this time she would be unable to recover. Despite the manic pace of the emergency department, Dr. Gregg took time to carefully explain the patient’s situation. The patient’s husband was not thanking the doctor for telling him that his wife would most likely pass away within the next week; he was thanking him for the care and compassion …show more content…
Physicians have the ability to heal both physically and emotionally by being a knowledgeable guide and trustworthy confidant.
The experiences I have gathered working as a scribe in the Missouri Baptist emergency room have proven invaluable as it has immersed me in the learning opportunity of working alongside a physician. I document all of the patient’s complaints and physical exam findings to help paint a comprehensive clinical picture. Each patient presents with a unique story and history and I often find myself researching the various conditions each possess. I exhibited this same curiosity during my shadowing experiences as well. I have observed multiple orthopedic surgeries, a day full of cardioversions, angioplasties, and simple office check ups, …show more content…
I have possessed this interest throughout my entire life, but I became conscious of it in high school. I found myself reading the pages of my biology textbook intensely trying to understand how glucose was transformed to ATP within cells. I was equally interested in chemistry and how chemical reactions took place. One thing that particularly caught my mind, though, was when my anatomy and physiology class observed the dissection of a cadaver. I remember being in awe of the complexity of the human body; meanwhile some of my classmates became ill. I decided to major in biochemistry—the chemistry of life—to fully explore my scientific interests. I further pursued biochemistry through working in a chemical immunology lab at the Doisy Research Center. The lab’s interests have clinical implications through our work with macrophage migration inhibitory factor, a pro-inflammatory cytokine molecule associated with rheumatoid arthritis. So far, I have been able to help set up experiments, run agarose gel electrophoresis, determine protein and DNA concentration, and perform a bacterial transformation experiment. These experiences have been very satisfying, as I am working with and manipulating the things I read about in my textbooks. I look forward to increasing my role within the lab in the years to come eventually my own project that, hopefully, results in a