Back to the Beginning

We are back to the beginning. It's a new year! New beginnings, new goals, new accomplishments.

Weekly Report 8/16/18 to 8/26/18

It seems as if we have retreated back to the first day of ISM I and the feeling is almost of nostalgia with a bit of nervousness setting in which was not expected. Starting off the past week with introductory speeches was slightly nerve-wracking considering that it felt like we had to live up to the expectations of what a role model ISM II student should be. However, once I stepped up to start my speech the atmosphere was only comforting and delivering the speech was not as hard as expected.

Since the journey is just beginning once again, there has not been much for us to do rather than to await the pending workload. Throughout the summer, my mentor and I have constantly kept in contact and he would call me to shadow him at least once a week in addition to discussing the prospect for my ISM II journey. In addition, my personal goal over the summer was to get a feel for other specialties within the medical field to assess whether ISM II would be a build on of last year’s topic or a different specialty. This was an opportunity to expand my interests in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery, oncology, robotic surgery, gynecology, etc. as well as eliminate topics that were not specifically fit for me. However, once again I went back to the field of neuroscience or more specifically a combination of pediatric neurosurgery and pediatric neurotrauma. The summer was also an insanely busy time so the number of unique cases that were witnessed was increased, especially when it came to the more severe cases. This ultimately grew my interest in trauma which is something that had been intriguing in the past, but I never thought of actually pursuing until now due to how unpredictable the career choice could be.

Overall, my goals for this year is to take my clinical experience to another level and not get stuck in writing research papers but rather attempt to do something more tangible. The research portion of neurosurgery is probably one of the most important factors, but after spending a year researching I believe it is about time to think of opportunities to apply that knowledge in the best manner possible. Dr. Braga has been talking to me about publishing a research paper on a case study that we reopened over the summer, but with the regulations set by Children’s we are still unaware if publishing is a feasible option. I have not allowed this to dishearten me as this year holds many exciting opportunities that are yet to come and ultimately my goal is to set out to finish this year ambitiously.