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.