Blog 7: Second Interview Preparation

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert? 

• Mentor: Cara Johnson
• She's an RN - Manager Regional Care Management 
• Works with Health Care Partners - North Region
• I'm not quote sure what she does exactly, but I will as soon as we meet in person and I start going in for mentoring hours. 

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

1. Where did you go to school and how did you come across in choosing the school?
2. What motivates you to keep doing what you're doing today? 
3. What is one of the biggest struggles or obstacles you had to face, if any, to get to where you are now? How did you face it?
4. How did you come across choosing the career path? Were you influenced? 
5. If you were to look back to where you first started school in college, if you could change one thing that would impact or would have impacted your life today, what would it be? Why?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?   

• When speaking of my senior project, I'd say that my determination has probably been the best thing so far. This is because currently, I still don't have a mentor, I don't have a set topic, and I'm stressing out over this. However, the most positive experience was my interview #1. That was such a great thing to experience, because usually I'm the interviewee, not the person who conducts the interviews. So, in regards to my senior project, what's worked well is are the blog postings, and the turn it in submissions as well. I'm a great big geek when it comes to technology, so having this senior project blog excites me very  much.

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

• With my senior project, I'm finding difficulty obtaining a mentor. Sure, people can assume that it's quite easy, but unfortunately for me it's been quite the struggle. Since I'm struggling so much with finding a mentor, that leads me to question my topic and asking myself if thats really what I want. An adaption that I can make so that this project betters out for me is maybe seeking for another topic, and trying to find a mentor within that topic. The senior team can help out by maybe letting me know if they know anyone in the medical field, in the dentistry field, or in the criminal justice field. Hopefully by the end of this month I'm able to come up with a new topic, or find a mentor that will stand by my side throughout my senior year. 

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

• The most important thing I learned from the interview was that being in the medical field has many challenges in which you're forced to find yourself before you start falling apart. I learned that you can't help a patient, or anyone in general, if you yourself aren't okay. Accepting yourself as a person, knowing your strengths and weakness, and reassuring yourself of your beliefs and morals are very critical to do while living by this career. However, I also learned that if this is something I wasn't to do, something I love, something I'm passionate about, then it's worth every second of my life. Something that I can improve upon for future interviews, is get more specific with my questions. 

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

• The most useful additional resources that my interviewee provided me with, was reading and looking into nursing journals (AJN), to provide me with more in depth answers to any questions that I may have. The reason to why these journals would be helpful, is because of the fact that their vocabulary is a lot easier to read and understand, than the vocabulary of a specialized doctor. Another helpful suggestion, was to talk to or interview a beside nurse, an LVN, or a PA, since they'd have a little more background in the the primary care part of this project, than a regular doctor would. 

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

• The reason to why this interviewee is qualified to help me, is because of the fact that she's a registered nurse that works in the emergency room department of a hospital that's located in Pasadena. She can tell you all about patients, being a leader, taking care of yourself, and working for long shift hours. The fact that she knows so much about everything, and she's able to explain how everything ties in and comes together makes her more than qualified to help me. Her skills, qualities, and her persona allowed for her to be qualified to start me off in the right foot with this project. 

 - Link to voice memo: Interview #1 - 

* CLICK HERE* 

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

Through my senior topic, Primary Care with Patients, I hope to accomplish lots of things in which I can appreciate later in life. First of all, I'd like to learn what it truly means to give care to someone in which you've never met before in your life. How is it exactly that you help someone else get better, when in reality we're all a bit messy ourselves. I'd like to learn how things work and correlate to one another allowing for a nurse or a doctor to provide the assistance a person needs. I hope that I learn enough about this topic, so that I can make the choice of whether or not I should remain in this particular medical field in the future years to follow. Communication skills, lots of patience, and optimism are also great qualities in which I hope to discover while working through this particular senior project. I hope that my mentorship allows for growth upon learning not only the basics, but also the entire picture of making sure a patient has been fully satisfied with their medical services. Last but not least, I hope to accomplish a great year of knowledge. Starting from researching sources, to interviewing people, all the way to the day of the presentation, I hope that I'm able to expand qualities, skills, and create lots of new experiences through the course of time.

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

Who do you plan to interview? 

• I plan to interview Cecilia Maldonado because she's a nurse that works in the ER, and that's very fascinating to me. It's quite amazing how a human being can function normally, and be able to assist with her knowledge in an ER; So, getting an inside on that should be quite the adventure. Allowing her to express her experience with patients, her love for her job, and her admirations for surgeons will be quite amazing to hear. Understanding her passion towards medicine can highly influence my future career and me. 

Questions that I will ask my interviewee:

1.  I'm interested in studying health medical practices, working with patents, and being in the environment of a hospital. What can you tell me about it? 
2.  In your perspective, what's the hardest part of being a nurse? Why?
3. Who do you recommend I talk to get more information?
4. What's the reason you chose this career?
5. What makes you want to do what you do every day of your life?
6.  How are you supposed to react to a severe situation every time you're in the ER?