This is a video I made last weekend with my classmate Erin. We had to convey a message about medical harm. Before we spent a week delving into the issue in class, I had no idea that medical harm (adverse events during surgery, medication mixups, etc...) is estimated to be the THIRD leading cause of death in the US.
My cohort (Group Apollo) is facilitated by Stephen Bezruchka, MD and he explains why we should be concerned about medical harm much better than me in this article.
I will try to post more pics soon from Kate's visit, the Joe Biden Rally, V-Diz and Samir's visit, and fall in Seattle.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Prom Queen
Mike, Jennie, Ana, Me, Tiffany, Jon
I asked a guy to Junior Prom. He turned me down and we both ended up going with friends. No one asked me to Senior Prom so a group of "Prom Renegades" went to the VD (RIP Villanova Diner), bowled, and went to the after-Prom party. I was only asked to slow dance ONE time in all of high school, and it was by some creepy guy I didn't even know.
Tonight, I had a second chance. I went to the Pro-Choice Prom - a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood - with some of my COPHP classmates: Jennie and her boyfriend Mike, Jon, Tiffany, and Ana. Thanks to my loud friends cheering me on, and a plea to the crowd that I NEEDED this crown to make up for missing Senior Prom over 10 years ago, I WAS CROWNED PROM QUEEN!
Ok, there wasn't really a crown, but I did get to slow dance with the King to Purple Rain.
It was an excellent night. You can see more pictures here.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
HOLY SHIT!
Fuck yeah, baby. WORLD FUCKING SERIES!!!! If you're not from Philly, you don't even know how huge this is. Man, this is when being in Seattle totally sucks. I want to be running down Broad Street with a cheesesteak in one hand and a Yards in the other.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
My First All-Nighter
In our PBL classes (the three hour class that's done in the Problem Based Learning style, when we dissect case studies and review each others' work) we have to tell the group what we'd do differently on our next assignment. Without fail, I always say time management. Time is my worst enemy and this week is living proof of that.
I knew this week was going to be rough. I had an editing project that I had to get done for my last job so I stayed up until 4am Tues/Wed finishing it so I can put it behind me and focus on school. Needless to say, I ended up sleeping late, until noon or so. This is bad because I have a Learning Objective, assigned Tuesday, that I have to research, write a 3-5 page paper on, and post by 7pm on Thursday. This wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't volunteer with the SPARX program to do vision and hearing screenings at a Head Start program tomorrow. Not only did that require that I go to a training on Wednesday night, but it means I lose about 4 hours of time to work on my Learning Objective (and since I signed up for this activity before I knew how crazy my schedule would be, I'm also scheduled to do one next Wednesday, yikes!).
I had to make up the time somehow, so I stayed up all night. Well, I'm trying to anyway. It's 4:54am now...I feel like a nap might be more productive at this point than 2 hours of sleep. The good news is, I think my post is in pretty good shape. The bad news is, I have to spend my afternoon trying to assess the vision and hearing of a group of 3.5 year olds. By that point, I might be on the verge of passing out. I hope I don't let any blind or deaf children fall through the cracks! Thank god Seattle is the Coffee Capital of America.
Oh, and Kate is coming to visit tomorrow so that's good too. I just hope she doesn't mind tucking in early - her jet lag should be useful on that front.
Now that I've procrastinated, I'll post this video about drug resistant TB, a major public health issue, presented in a very compelling way:
I knew this week was going to be rough. I had an editing project that I had to get done for my last job so I stayed up until 4am Tues/Wed finishing it so I can put it behind me and focus on school. Needless to say, I ended up sleeping late, until noon or so. This is bad because I have a Learning Objective, assigned Tuesday, that I have to research, write a 3-5 page paper on, and post by 7pm on Thursday. This wouldn't have been a problem if I didn't volunteer with the SPARX program to do vision and hearing screenings at a Head Start program tomorrow. Not only did that require that I go to a training on Wednesday night, but it means I lose about 4 hours of time to work on my Learning Objective (and since I signed up for this activity before I knew how crazy my schedule would be, I'm also scheduled to do one next Wednesday, yikes!).
I had to make up the time somehow, so I stayed up all night. Well, I'm trying to anyway. It's 4:54am now...I feel like a nap might be more productive at this point than 2 hours of sleep. The good news is, I think my post is in pretty good shape. The bad news is, I have to spend my afternoon trying to assess the vision and hearing of a group of 3.5 year olds. By that point, I might be on the verge of passing out. I hope I don't let any blind or deaf children fall through the cracks! Thank god Seattle is the Coffee Capital of America.
Oh, and Kate is coming to visit tomorrow so that's good too. I just hope she doesn't mind tucking in early - her jet lag should be useful on that front.
Now that I've procrastinated, I'll post this video about drug resistant TB, a major public health issue, presented in a very compelling way:
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Here I Am!
I thought a blog would be a good way to keep people out East updated on my new life in Seattle but I've been here for over a month now and haven't had any adventures worth writing about. I spent most of the time before school started getting settled and figuring out how to get around on the bus - my only option other than walking since I don't have a car or bike (yet).
Well, finally the "adventure" has started. School began a week ago and it has been a BIG adjustment.
A bit of an explanation. My Public Health program is called the Community Oriented Public Health Practice (COPHP). There are 15 COPHP 1st year students altogether but for class we are divided between two groups. While most MPH students take core public health classes like epidemiology, biostatistics, intro to public health, etc., COPHP students learn through case studies. We read the case out loud in class and then discuss what we know, think we know, and need to know. Based on the "need to know" we come up with learning objectives and divide them up between us. Each person then has to research their learning objective and write a 3-5 page paper which we post online 2.5 days later for everyone else to read.
Going into this program, I thought I'd be well prepared since I've been writing grants for the last two years. I know how to research a topic and I think I know how to write fairly well. I don't know that anything could have prepared me though for having to take a somewhat vague topic like "How have US health trends changed in the global rankings?"** and turn it into a paper without really knowing what exactly my fellow students should be learning when they read it. I've only "posted" two papers so far but both times it's been extremely anxiety inducing. Putting my work up for other people to read I think:
"Is it good enough?"
"Did I do it 'right'?"
"I wish I managed my time better."
I'm learning that to thrive in this program, I'm going to have to face down my insecurities in a major way. I'm also going to have to tackle something that's always been an issue for me: time management. But at the end of the day, I need to remember that out of a hundred students, I was one of the handful that was actually accepted so I must be intelligent, even if I might not feel that way as I get used to being a student again.
While it's been a challenging first week of class, I am learning a lot and it's exciting to talk to my classmates about topics that I find super interesting, like how international financial institutions (such as the World Bank) screwed the third world and how socio-economic issues impact the health of a society.
I see myself using this blog as a place to let people know how I'm doing, to share what I'm learning, and to post pictures of Seattle, which is a lovely city despite it's substandard public transportation system (oh, how I miss the NYC subway). At the end of two years, it'll also be a nice record of my grad school experience.
**For the record, the US ranks 30th in the "Health Olympics" - a lower showing than you'd expect from a country that spends more than any other on health care (over $6,000 per person or $2.2 trillion annually).
Well, finally the "adventure" has started. School began a week ago and it has been a BIG adjustment.
A bit of an explanation. My Public Health program is called the Community Oriented Public Health Practice (COPHP). There are 15 COPHP 1st year students altogether but for class we are divided between two groups. While most MPH students take core public health classes like epidemiology, biostatistics, intro to public health, etc., COPHP students learn through case studies. We read the case out loud in class and then discuss what we know, think we know, and need to know. Based on the "need to know" we come up with learning objectives and divide them up between us. Each person then has to research their learning objective and write a 3-5 page paper which we post online 2.5 days later for everyone else to read.
Going into this program, I thought I'd be well prepared since I've been writing grants for the last two years. I know how to research a topic and I think I know how to write fairly well. I don't know that anything could have prepared me though for having to take a somewhat vague topic like "How have US health trends changed in the global rankings?"** and turn it into a paper without really knowing what exactly my fellow students should be learning when they read it. I've only "posted" two papers so far but both times it's been extremely anxiety inducing. Putting my work up for other people to read I think:
"Is it good enough?"
"Did I do it 'right'?"
"I wish I managed my time better."
I'm learning that to thrive in this program, I'm going to have to face down my insecurities in a major way. I'm also going to have to tackle something that's always been an issue for me: time management. But at the end of the day, I need to remember that out of a hundred students, I was one of the handful that was actually accepted so I must be intelligent, even if I might not feel that way as I get used to being a student again.
While it's been a challenging first week of class, I am learning a lot and it's exciting to talk to my classmates about topics that I find super interesting, like how international financial institutions (such as the World Bank) screwed the third world and how socio-economic issues impact the health of a society.
I see myself using this blog as a place to let people know how I'm doing, to share what I'm learning, and to post pictures of Seattle, which is a lovely city despite it's substandard public transportation system (oh, how I miss the NYC subway). At the end of two years, it'll also be a nice record of my grad school experience.
**For the record, the US ranks 30th in the "Health Olympics" - a lower showing than you'd expect from a country that spends more than any other on health care (over $6,000 per person or $2.2 trillion annually).
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