Alison S.'s Experience in CT Scanning

In practicum, this week, I went to the radiology center. To be exact, I went and observed the CT scan area. This was very interesting to see because I have never witnessed anything like this. In the room, we helped a lady get into the machine. They explained to me that they need to use this machine to see if something is wrong with them internally. It was kind of scary because I was nervous something was going to be really wrong and they lady would start to freak out. She was already really unsettled and nervous about going into the machine so I did not want to be there if something went wrong. When she was all set and ready to go, we went into the back room where all the computers are. There are about 7 different computers just for one machine! It’s crazy I don’t know how they keep track of all the information that's going into the computer. When the process had started, all these images began to pop up onto the screen at one time.

During this, another lady was pressing all these buttons and speaking to the lady, helping her to turn certain ways so the machine could get a better view. The man then started taking pictures of certain images that popped up and saved them to the computer. He said he did not need all the ones coming in through the machine because many of them are duplicates. When the scan was over, We helped the lady out and put her into the waiting room which was right outside the office. The man then took all the images he saved and out them into one huge picture. This was so cool because all these images formed an entire body. It’s so weird to see how all of these images come together into one picture. I really enjoyed this experience and now have even more of an interest in this field.

Mikayla's Interview with an Occupational Therapist

For my second interview I interviewed Ms. Rojas. She is an Occupational Therapist who works at Garvy Grade School as well as Lutheran General Hospital. She has been currently working at Garvy for the past four years, but has been part of CPS for five years. Before she started at Garvy she was a rehabilitation aid at Lutheran General Hospital; she still works at Lutheran General working with adults. Ms. Rojas works with kids in school ranging from pre-school up to 8th grade. When working with adults the ages vary from 18 and up, she was working with a patient recently who just turned 102 and had a hip replacement.

When asked what she likes most about her job Ms. Rojas said that she gets the best of both worlds. When she is working with her "little friends" they're always fun to work with and she can see them develop and begin to become independent in the classroom which will begin to show at home as well. When she is at the hospital working with the adults she watches them gain their independence back and teaches them to be independent in their homes. The challenges of being an Occupational Therapist are that time management is a very important along with being able to think fast and be prepared for whatever obstacles a patient may bring.

The advice Ms. Rojas gave to me as someone who is now interested in this field is that I should research the field more along with the class requirements for college. She also said that I should take all my prerequisites as soon as possible because it will help greatly when taking other classes. Planning ahead is also important especially in the case of applying and getting into Grad School. Ms. Rojas also informed me that in order to work in the field and complete school I have to become an expert at multi-tasking. Asking Ms. Rojas about how the field/ job will change in the next 10-20 years was an open ended question. She said from the time that she started school and now the field had already changed greatly. The new focus for kids these days is technology; there is a campaign going around now to put iPads in the schools for kids to use, and instead of handwriting the new focus is teaching the kids to type. For students with different needs the slightest changes can affect them greatly, when schools begin to switch from the regular Elmer’s liquid glue to glue sticks it gets hard for a teacher to help the kids understand their strengths. Kids with muscular problems need to be taught the amount of pressure and strength they can use in certain situations and using liquid glue as a teaching tool is a special way of helping them learn that.

I asked Ms. Rojas what type of personality is needed to work in this field and she said that you need to be active, willing to accept change, be very flexible, manageable of your time, and to be organized. The different techniques Ms. Rojas uses help the patients learn motor skills, body awareness, directionality, etc. She teaches the kids school based materials that can easily be transferred to a classroom and uses equipment that accommodate their needs to the environment. A type of equipment Ms. Rojas uses for example is the body sock which is a nylon/spandex blanket that helps kids with a sensory processing disorder. The blanket gives a child a calming effect, the different fabric alerts the child's central Nervous System and helps a child to realize a new material. When Ms. Rojas has the children play games she picks games that will establish therapeutic skills. The games she chooses help with using hand strength, eye coordination, using a fine hand grasp, directionality, and balance. I have become very interested in the field of Occupational Therapy and may consider this as a new career option for myself.

Danielle B.'s Informational Interview with a Fitness Instructor

For this assignment, I interviewed my sister, Samantha Berger. She is a Group Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer. She has been working in this job for 2 years now. Before starting this career, Samantha worked as a Marketing Intern/Teller Services for Parkway Bank and Trust Company. The thing that she likes most about her job is that she is able to work with people on a daily basis on improving their health status. She says that it is a life changing job that is not only fun, but rewarding in many ways. "Not many people can say that they have aided in the process of someone progressing from a diseased state to an apparently healthy living condition," says Samantha. A challenging part of her job is creating new and fresh programs on a daily basis. The program is based off the client’s needs and interests which can become dull over time. What is harder than that, though, is throwing 60 people into a studio and trying to lead a class with several people of different fitness levels and needs. She says that trying to teach the proper form to that many people and modifying each exercise for that amount of people can be extremely challenging.

The advice that she would give to me, as someone who is interested in this field, would be to practice working with people as much as possible and start as early as I can. It would also help to take many workshops and use the professionals surrounding me for all the advice and information they can give to me. Samantha says that the fitness industry is always changing. The different fad exercise programs are changing on a monthly basis. She also says that Health and Fitness will become more and more individualized to the overweight and obese population, seeing as it is on the rise and it isn't going to slow down. This will give them a greater opportunity to make a difference and gain a greater client base.

Jackie B.'s Excitement in the ER

On the 21st of November, I went to the Emergency Room for my fourth time. When I arrived my nurse had already a few patients that she was taking care of in their rooms. One of her patients was telling her that she woke up with the left side of her face drooping. The nurse that I was shadowing was thinking that she could have had a stroke and or be having one at the moment. The nurse and I had to wheel the women to a department where they have MRI’s and CAT Scans. We had five minutes to get the patient to have a MRI before something could happen. We really had to rush. I helped the nurse with wheeling the patient to the MRI department and then the nurse let me hold and carry her papers. It was really cool because I got to see how the Emergency Room nurses get a patient to the MRI and CAT Scan rooms. I also got to see the people who control the machines and how they work. The other patient that she had was a possible cardiac arrest, when the patient got to the hospital; the nurses had to hook them up to a machine that checks their heart rate and they also had to draw his blood tests. By the end of my time there, she had another patient coming in but, I wasn’t able to see what happened to the patient. That was my last day to be in the Emergency Room and I got to see a lot of things happen that are also different from the other times I had gone there. The Emergency Room was my favorite placement because it’s very exciting and you never know what will come in and what will happen.

Emily G.'s Informational Interview with a Psychologist

My first interview was with Dr. Jo Wolthusen, who went here to Resurrection for high school. Dr. Wolthusen really helped me get an inside view of psychology, a job I’m highly considering, and helped me learn more about it. Ms. Cunniff had asked Dr. Wolthusen to come in to speak to me and my friend Kelly, who also sat in and asked questions about her career. After the introductions and “hellos,” Kelly and I began to ask her questions about her job. We asked her about her background in schooling and what she did to get to work where she does. She had explained all of the years it took her to get her degree, and all of the experience she’s had with school. She also explained how much schooling we would have to go through for each different level of psychology. Surprisingly, for psychology, one may have to stay studying in school for up to 6 years! She currently works as an adolescent psychologist, her patients varying in age. Though some do grow up and become adults, they continue to see her, which is something that isn’t uncommonly happens for those who’ve been seeing someone for part of their younger lives.

Dr. Wolthusen seemed entertained with our questions, almost as much as we were with her answers. I asked her the craziest things she’s ever seen in her line of work, or the most sad or happy. She gave so many examples, I wondered exactly how many moments of happiness or sadness happen in one’s lifetime that she gets an inside view on. To be able to see ones ups and downs must be incredibly difficult to do, but at the same time would be such an incredible thing to be able to look into. We also asked her about any difficulties in her work, and she said that there are difficulties, just like any other line of work, but they were easy to confront and pass by without a big mess being left behind.

Though there are difficulties there, there are also rewards. She stated that she loves the rewarding feeling of helping someone, and making sure they’re alright. After asking her what she enjoyed most about her job, she told us that she most enjoyed the feeling she had at the end of the day, which is fulfilled. To feel fulfillment after a day of work means you truly love the job you’ve got, which is the best thing that could happen.