This week gets a 3 for the three measly responses I received on my first day of survey administration, which was definitely not the best start. Fortunately, Priya and I made better progress and got more than 70 surveys done in 4 days. 100 surveys are possible, after all! Besides administering surveys, we also had a chance to talk to and educate patients on cholesterol.
Also, the department was running out of cholesterol brochures, but I got a refill shipment in 2 days and allowed us to distribute colored, user-friendly literature that people actually read through while waiting for their doctor…so much better than giving patients old, unattractive Xeroxed copies.
That was basically what we did all week long. Plus breaking the copy machine and draining printer toners from all those revisions and copying.
Community Project & Subjective: Survey etiquette and patient education (or educated?)
At the conclusion of last week, I was desperate because I still haven’t started surveying, and I had 3 weeks to rack in a considerable number of questionnaires. Based on the disappointing results from the pilot (and realizing how difficult it was to circle the floor “preying” on patients), we decided to try a new method and administer surveys to all intake patients in a particular team. I started working at Dr. Song’s team to target the Asian population, but realized that I always wasn’t so lucky because of her remarkable speed when seeing patients. Rarely do her patients have time after their visits, because many of them have to rush to their next appointments.
Priya gladly helped me looked for more patients, since her side of the floor is always bustling with Hispanic patients. When I was walking down the hallway, most of them looked bored from waiting. Surprisingly, some of them are eager to fill out the survey as I approached them with a clipboard. Usually, they are literate and can do the survey on their own, but most of the patients prefer someone to read and talk to in the process. One of the best things that happened this week was gaining attention from patients nearby who were more than willing and interested in being surveyed. All of them were happy after I gave them literature. As a result, we were able to get over 30 surveys completed on a single Thursday.
Residents spend more time with each patient, which corresponds to patient wait time. This gave me more time to spend with patients on the survey, as opposed to the rush on other days. Although it was quiet on Friday, I had the chance to sit down with curious patients and educate them on cholesterol and heart disease. One patient admitted that she would probably throw out the brochure I gave her if I didn’t explain to her the correct answers to the knowledge portion on the survey she had taken. Hearing this, I felt satisfied that I finally took a refreshing initiative to do more than the administer-and-thank routine.
The few things I was annoyed at was how we wasted some time editing minor grammatical errors that could have been corrected by hand on the surveys, and how utterly disorganized we were with our papers and brochures because we each have our own “survey kits” of blank questionnaires and literature. On Friday, I couldn’t stand it anymore, so I got some manila folders from the administrative office, and proceeded to reorganize our materials. A paid intern from another summer work program volunteered to help me with that (plus miscellaneous photocopying and assembling cholesterol literature handouts), since all he was only sitting around and playing games on his phone, anyways.
Subjective: Feeling accomplished.
The one thing I fear about administering surveys is being rejected, but I feel a lot better thanking them anyway and giving them literature. That way, they no longer feel harassed, and in some ways, I’ve done my job by educating them.
Patients are also happy when they are able to understand what they think are advanced medical topics. I realized this week that a lot goes into translating medical mumbo-jumbo into accurate laymen’s terms with popular appeal.
So this week, my community project experience is also the subjective portion.
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