One of my jobs is basic data entry at a Neuroscience Clinic. I enter specific information from patient files into a computer database. My favorite job is an internship with Morton Plant Mease Foundation. The Foundation offers insight into the philanthropic nature of not-for-profit hospitals. I really enjoy this job because my workload is always changing. There is always something new to do and I enjoy being busy. I help create the marketing materials such as quarterly newsletters and the yearly philanthropy report. I also help coordinate events for various societies within the Foundation.
Right now, I am doing extensive work with a society comprised of young adults, ages 21-35. It is nice to be among young individuals that want to make a difference in their community and believe in health care for all people. This society just finished raising the funds for a BabySIM for our hospitals. The BabySIM is a representation of a 3 to 6 month old infant that medical professionals can use to practice dangerous medical procedures. This is just one example of the great things I have been apart of since interning at the Foundation.
I am an experienced online student of UCF since I live hours away from campus. I will say that this class is definitely the most work-intensive class that I have come across. At first, I was not happy about this and almost wished that I had dropped the class. But now as I look deeply into the topics we will be learning, I think this class will be very interesting and beneficial to my career.
The first assignment was definitely a unique assignment. I had never heard of thrush before this assignment. I think it is a great idea for students to simulate thrush and feel a small extent of what HIV patients go through everyday. As if HIV itself is not enough to deal with, something as simple as eating and drinking becomes a difficult task due to this nasty infection. For those of you that are unfamiliar with what oral thrush looks like (I was once the same way), here is an example:
The thrush simulation assignment was definitely an eye opener. When you think of HIV, you do not think of the opportunistic infections that can come along with the disease. I think more people should educate themselves about this disease and what is being done to find a treatment. It should be one of the most important topics in medical studies.
**DID YOU KNOW**
I have chosen HIV and pregnancy as my topic for the "Did You Know" feature. I found that I am extremely uneducated when it comes to this topic. I thought that any woman that is HIV positive will transmit the virus to her unborn child. As I begin my research, I have found that this is definitely not the case. One interesting fact is that a vaginal delivery holds a much higher risk of transmitting the disease than a cesarean.
