Week 9

On Monday, my group presented our PowerPoint and brochure on upper respiratory infections (URI's). We tried to make our brochure as attractive as possible without filling it up with complicated wording so as to appeal to the general populace. Even I refuse to read a brochure that is full of minuscule text. We defined URI and explained some of the symptoms, transmission, treatment, and prevention. We did not even mention the specific names of the causative agents of the various URI's, but we did say whether the 3 diseases we focused on (common cold, flu, mold allergies) were caused by bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Our PowerPoint was for the class, so we were able to add a few more details to the presentation. Since we were the last group to go, we only had 5 minutes to present, but it worked out fine. We let Sophia do most of the speaking since she is the best speaker out of all of us, so the rest of us made up for it by doing more of the work in putting together the brochure and PowerPoint. Overall, we were brief but succinct, and I feel like we did a good job.

This is my last blog, but I will continue to volunteer at SJC as long as I can. Although I was skeptical at first, this project turned out to be a great success, and I'm glad it was a requirement for this class. It introduced me to places that I would not think to volunteer at otherwise, and I love helping out at SJC. Hopefully, the brochures will educate the people about the diseases we researched so that the community will have a better understanding of how to care for themselves.

Week 8

After skipping 2 weeks in a row, I was finally able to volunteer at the clinic. Our group had dwindled down to only other person, and Sam really had nothing planned for us to do. Finally, she came up with 2 tasks for us to accomplish. First, we had a pile of brochures that had accidentally printed on only one side, and we had to figure out how to print on the other side by trying out different trays of the printer and positioning the paper in various ways. Next, we had to cut out remembrance cards of the clinic using decorative scissors. Since they only had one pair of scissors, I did the majority of the cutting while my partner took care of the brochures. Once we finished printing, we learned how to print on both sides simultaneously for future reference. We even took it a step further and began folding the brochures into trifolds. We worked incessantly, but we were unable to complete our assignments. However, it was still an enjoyable experience because the work was simple, and I had a good conversation with my volunteer buddy.

In other news, my group completed our brochure about upper respiratory infections, which we will be presenting on Monday.

Week 7

Once again, I had to skip volunteering for school. I had a paper to write that was due the next morning, and I had barely started on it because I was working a 10-game homestand, starting from April 15 to April 25, which left me absolutely no time to do schoolwork after work. I felt really bad since I also skipped the previous week, and I know the clinic could've used all the help they could get, especially with their big fundraiser coming up, which was on the 25th.

Our presentations for this volunteering project is coming up fast. My group is doing upper respiratory infections, which is the main infectious disease where Sophia is volunteering (Healthcare for the Homeless). Since upper respiratory infections can be caused by a number of agents, our project will probably be more broad than others.

Week 6

I didn't volunteer this week because I had to study for a Spanish test that afternoon. However, I did stop by the clinic with some of the guys. They were picking up letters from Sam confirming that they completed their volunteer hours, but I went to try to set up a shadowing time for April 18.

When we got there, Sam wasn't there yet, so in the meantime, we sat in the break area and ate Easter cookies that they had set out for employees & volunteers. After a few minutes, Sam arrived, and we got down to business. Knowing that most of the guys weren’t going to continue volunteering saddened me a little because they made it a lot more fun, not to mention we were getting a lot more work done by working as a group. Sam wasn’t sure whether they would have a doctor available for me to shadow on Saturday, but she promised to get back with me. Later, she e-mailed me to let me know that there would be a doctor in the morning, but I was unable to go because I had to go to the club fair at school to promote HOSA. Hopefully, I will be able to go to the next time they have a Saturday clinic day.

Week 5

I drove myself to the clinic this week because I had to go to work right after volunteering. Surprisingly enough, the guys were only a couple of minutes late. Sam needed help getting ready for their upcoming fundraiser, and she divided the 7 of us into 3 groups. At first, she was going to give me a different project to do on my own, but then she let me tag along with Vincent and Khoa N.

Our job was to map out all of the locations that were donating food for the fundraiser because the food was going to be picked up on Saturday. In all, there were about 20 different restaurants and a handful of other people who donated. The problem was that the addresses we were provided were mailing addresses and not necessarily their physical addresses, so we had to do a little investigating via Google Maps to figure it out. We finished with about 30 min to spare, but Sam had nothing else for us to do, and the pharmacy didn't want our help. We ended up sitting around, drinking coffee and hot cocoa, and musing about the clinic's pet rabbit while we waited for the rest of our crew to finish.

On a side note, I really wish the clinic's parking lot stayed open at night. That way, I could just walk across Hamilton St. (now Milo Hamilton Way) to work and park for free instead of paying the parking meters.

Week 4

Two additional guys joined our volunteer group, so we had to take 2 cars to the clinic. We took a different way and nearly got lost, but once again, my handy-dandy GPS saved us from going completely off course. I was expecting to finish the recipe cards, but Sam was having a meeting in her office, so she assigned me to medical records with 3 of the guys.

We had to go through all the patients' records and trash all the ones that pre-dated February 2003. No matter how old a file was, as long as there was at least one paper that said February 2003 or later, we had to keep it. I got the hang of it after my first load, and although I wasn't the speed demon of the team, I definitely was not the slowest one either. In all, we sorted through 4 cartfuls of files. There was a bit of confusion keeping everything in numerical order, and we did make a few mistakes, but we were able to catch them before it got out of hand (we hope).

Even though the work was tedious, it was easy and necessary. The time went by pretty fast since I wasn't all by myself like the other times. One of the guys who had been in dental told us about a patient who tried pulling out his tooth with pliers, but the root of tooth wouldn't come out, so he tried to dig it out with a screwdriver. As one might guess, the process was extremely painful, and he passed out numerous times. He tried doing it on his own because he didn't have money to go to a dentist, but he was finally forced to come to the clinic because he wasn't able to get his tooth completely out. That is one conversation I won't soon forget.

Although I completed my 10 hours, I will continue to go back for awhile. At the very least, I want to finish the recipe cards. I still need to shadow a doctor, and that won't be possible until after Easter.

Week 3

On Wednesday, I started volunteering at my new time (2-4p) since my previous time wasn't working out anymore. I rode with several of the guys volunteering for Cell. We got lost for a few minutes because we took a different way from the way I usually take and missed our exit. Thankfully, with a little help from my trusty GPS and some knowledge of Downtown, we were able to find our way.

When we got to SJC, we found a note on Sam's door, delegating all of our duties. Everyone else was assigned to medical records or dental, but I got to stay in Sam's office and work on the recipes I started last time, all the while munching on snacks provided for the volunteers. That made me appreciate my job even more because I wasn't stuck with all the boring paperwork like everyone else. Sam was nowhere to be found, but we went about our business as usual. I would've liked some help, though, because I was supposed to make the recipe cards look attractive, and my creative ability these days is nonexistent. In fact, the only thing I could come up with that was quasi-clever was to use the pink & purple SJC logo as bullets for the ingredients list, which turned out to be futile since Sam decided she wanted to print them out in black & white.

By the time Sam got there, it was almost time to leave. I ended up staying an extra 30 min again since the guys weren't supposed to finish until 4.30p. She suggested that I come on April 18 to shadow a doctor since they have plenty of doctors that day, and they almost never have doctors when I normally volunteer. I will try my best to go, but that is the same weekend as the Research Symposium, and I should be presenting.

Midterms and Such

Like many people last week, I didn't volunteer due to midterms and papers, but I decided to reflect on my experience thus far. Volunteering at SJC hasn't been what I expected coming into it. I haven't had a chance to shadow a physician or have any patient contact at all, but that is understandable since most of the doctors aren't on site on Wednesdays, and many of the patients can only speak Spanish. Therefore, I've decided to take Business Spanish in the fall to help me bridge that communication gap. There's supposed to be a Spanish class particular to the health care field, but I think they offer that in the spring. In the meantime, I'm content with desk duty. Sam seems to have worked hard to come up with projects for me, and I really appreciate her effort.

Week 2

This week, Samantha wasn't in her office when I got to the clinic, so after wandering around for a few minutes, I asked the lady at the front desk if she knew what I was supposed to be doing. Samantha was in a meeting, but another lady gave me the instructions that Samantha had left for me. My project was to find 12 culturally appropriate recipes for the patients to take home with them. Since most of the patients suffer from diabetes, high cholesterol, and related conditions, the recipes had to be healthy alternatives. Since I really like cooking and baking, this project was perfect for me.

I found dozens of recipes on the American Diabetes Association website without much effort. I tried to choose recipes that required few ingredients, were easy to make, and would appeal to a Hispanic population. The recipes I chose ranged from fruit smoothies to side dishes to desserts, and I would definitely try out every single one of them.

Once again, I went over my scheduled volunteer time by 30 min, but I didn't mind at all. Samantha hopes to translate the recipes into Spanish, but since my Spanish is pretty limited, she will have to find someone else to do that. Samantha also wanted the recipe cards to look attractive, so I will be working on that next week. I guess that means I won't be shadowing doctors anytime soon, but I can't complain. These projects are keeping me busy, and I'm having fun doing them.

First Day

Today was my first day of volunteering. Right after medical micro, I raced over to SJC. That proved to be unnecessary as I got there with 15 min to spare. Parking was not a problem at all, and most importantly, it was free! After entering the clinic through the back door, I started signing into the volunteer log. Then I realized that I should probably sign the log that actually had my name on it.

All of the directors were gone for the day, so Sam warned me that it was not going to be a very fun day for me. For the first hour, I copied and collated a handbook from Memorial Hermann. It actually took a bit of concentration to copy everything because I had to fit 2 pages of the handbook onto 1 sheet of paper and make sure everything was in the correct order. Afterwards, Sam asked me to make volunteer badges because apparently, people forget to take them off before they leave. It took me a good while to make them because their laptop was incredibly slow. I ended up staying 30 min past my shift to finish the badges because once I start something, I would rather finish it. I didn't mind, though, because my next class wasn't until 5.30p. I also met Texas, who took my picture to add to the volunteer wall.

As I was leaving, Sam told me that they would try to have me work in the medical department next week so I could get some experience. Overall, the day was pretty productive, and the time went by quickly because Sam kept me busy. I only saw 3 or 4 patients the entire time, and they were already on their way out. It was a bit lonely working by myself and not talking to anyone, so I'm hoping to find someone to volunteer with me. I'm also thinking about changing my shift to later in the afternoon so that I'll have time to eat lunch before I volunteer. Even though it was just busy work, I really enjoyed my first day, and I'm looking forward to next week.

San José Clinic

Last week, I contacted SJC to schedule my orientation. They responded the next day, and my orientation was set up for Friday, February 13 at 1p. That day, I left school with plenty of time to spare in case I got lost. Of course, that shouldn't happen since I work right next door, and I should know that area pretty well by now. I had no trouble finding the clinic, but parking was a bit of an issue. I wasn't sure where to park, but there were $0.50 and $1 parking lots adjacent to the clinic. I was a little scared because I have a bit of a history with parking tickets, but luckily, I've never been towed. I chose the $0.50 parking, and since I was still a little early, I took a nap. Later, I found out that the clinic has a free parking lot behind the building.

When I finally went into the clinic, I was hit by a peculiar smell, somewhat of a mixture of alcohol and cigarette smoke. The receptionist was on the phone, so I stood there for about 5 minutes until she was finished. She spoke to me in Spanish (I get that a lot, me being half-Filipino and all), and I told her I was supposed to meet Samantha Sherman. Samantha came out right away and gave me a tour of the place. Some of the exam rooms were being used as offices, and the whole place looked a bit dreary (maybe it was the lighting), but all the equipment was fully functional, which is the most important thing. I didn't expect to see so many tiny rooms in that small building. I was also surprised that they offer dental services as well as optometry and a pharmacy. Even though all that information is on their website, it clearly didn't register when I read it the first time.

After the tour, Samantha and I discussed my volunteer times. I was hoping to do 1 hour on Wednesdays, but they prefer shifts of at least 2 hours at a time, so she scheduled me from 12.30-2.30p starting February 25. Since most of the patients there are Spanish-speaking and my Spanish is pretty limited, I wasn't going to get much patient interaction, understandably. I was a bit disappointed that there weren't going to be many opportunities to shadow doctors because most of the doctors don't come in on Wednesdays. Most likely, I was going to be filing paperwork and playing with kids in the waiting area. However, Samantha was very nice and understanding and said they would try their best to vary my volunteering duties and set up at least one shadowing day for me to make my 10 hours as fulfilling as possible.

I'm also happy to report that SJC got a shout-out on Sunday. We watched a video in church regarding the Diocesan Services Fund, and the first thing they mentioned was how they fund SJC with our donations. I was proud to be associated with such a worthy cause.

First-Time Blogger

Disclaimer: This is my first blog ever, so don't be surprised if it's lacking in creativity or depth and you happen to fall asleep halfway through the first sentence.

When I first heard about this project, I was a tad bit stressed because I already volunteer 6 hours a week at both Texas Children's Hospital and at Ronald McDonald House inside TCH. I'm also taking 19 hours this semester, so it's going to take some mad skills to try to set this up. Then again, I always seem to figure things out, so it's not impossible. Either way, I know I'm going to end up volunteering more than 10 hours. I don't think I would have much of an impact if I showed up an hour a week and then packed up as soon as my quota was reached.

I haven't had a chance to contact any of the clinics yet because my schedule for the semester is still up in the air. If I start researching again with Dr. Palasota, that will be on Wednesday afternoons, which would only leave Tuesdays and Thursdays after 4p open. So much for me coming home somewhat early on those days...

Last week, I looked at the list of clinics we were given, and after researching them, I narrowed it down to San José Clinic. (Little did I know that everyone and their mothers picked that same clinic.) Anyway, I chose it because I pass by it all the time when I go to work (Minute Maid Park), and I know my way around there. Also, it is a ministry of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, which is a plus for me because I'm Catholic. Most importantly, they offer a range of services to their patients, unlike most of the other clinics, which concentrate on specific things, such as dentistry or counseling. Then there's that moral dilemma I have about sexual health clinics, so I had to stay away from those.

I hope to go to med school, and I think this would be a great opportunity for me to see different aspects of health care, which I would not otherwise have a chance to do. Despite my apparent negativity about this project, I actually enjoy volunteering, especially at RMH, where I get to bake cookies for the kids and their families in ICU. I've never volunteered in a clinic setting before, so I'm really excited to see how it'll turn out.

Wow, I wrote WAY more than I expected. I'll save some for next week.