Welcome to this blog recording my experiences as an intern at Kaiser Permanente's Surgery Clinic on their Terra Linda campus. I hope you find it edifying, and, in the case of my tales from the OR, entertaining (within reason, of course.)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Resume
Personal Information:
Dylan Dullea
61 Lomita Drive, Mill Valley, CA 94941
(415) 381-5499, home; (415) 342-1352, cell
Objective:
I would like to be an intern in a Marin hospital. I think that I would be a good candidate to consider because I’m a dependable hard worker, I love science, and I enjoy working with others and being helpful.
Experience:
Kaiser School-to-Career Internship (2008)
- Help with patient relations, restocking, wound care, and instrument washing in the clinic.
- Watch surgeries in the Operating Room as well as in the Minor Procedure room.
- 8:00-12:00 M, T, Th, F for 5 weeks.
American Bach Soloists: (2007-present)
- Usher, Sell CDs and beverages, and help breaking down the set.
- Judge cookie competition
- Worked selling art in that hall for three evenings 2007, four evenings 2008 (4 - 10:30 PM)
- Worked at an arts and crafts booth for little kids
- Have exhibited my cartoons, writing, plants, and baked goods since 1996.
Marin
- I have judged exhibits in both the primary and secondary science fairs.
Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra: Member (2005-present) Fellow and Principal Cellist (2007-present)
- Play in the orchestra as well as in a chamber group for special events
- Help set up and break down
- Help with the younger groups’ rehearsals
- Help with distributing and filing music as well as stuffing envelopes
- Play in orchestra, help set up and break down, prepare snacks based on a rotating schedule
- Choir member, assist with collection, and a scripture reader
- 1 Room Sunday School Teacher (3 Sundays June 2008)
- Helped keep classroom order
- Explained math subjects.
Education:
- Junior,
- 4.7 GPA this year, probably 4.4 average for all three years.
- Highlights include APUSH, Honors Advanced Algebra, AP Spanish, and AP Biology.
Skills and Interests:
- Computers: PC, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Paint
- Good Public Speaker
- Punctual to engagements
- Always work hard and that work is always my best
- Understand most concepts hearing them once
- Good memory
- Interests include music and art
Internship Description
When I report to Kaiser's Surgery Clinic in Terra Linda as a School to Career Intern, I have many duties that I may perform. For example, my first day, I was occupied restocking shelves and watching a small-scale surgery with localized anesthetic in the Minor Room. However, the next day, I went into the chilly Operating Room to observe (in full surgeon gear) a mastectomy and a laparoscopic hernia repair, where the surgeon (Michael Parnes, MD) inserted some prolene (plastic) mesh into the fascia of the abdominal wall to prevent loops of intestine from slipping through and causing pain.
To date, I have:
Helped escort lost Kaiser clients throughout the hospital to find their desired department,
Talked to people in the waiting room as to the status of their loved ones,
Assisted in handing instruments and supplies to medical professionals (NPs, MDs) in wound care,
Washed dirty instruments and assembled "minor packs"- a collection of tools needed for procedures in the Minor Room,
Restocked shelves and refilled containers,
Watched procedures in the minor room/talked to patients to distract them from the procedure that was happening while they were conscious,
and watched operations in the Operating Room in which the patients were under a general anesthetic or sedated to the point where they were sleeping.
To date, I have:
Helped escort lost Kaiser clients throughout the hospital to find their desired department,
Talked to people in the waiting room as to the status of their loved ones,
Assisted in handing instruments and supplies to medical professionals (NPs, MDs) in wound care,
Washed dirty instruments and assembled "minor packs"- a collection of tools needed for procedures in the Minor Room,
Restocked shelves and refilled containers,
Watched procedures in the minor room/talked to patients to distract them from the procedure that was happening while they were conscious,
and watched operations in the Operating Room in which the patients were under a general anesthetic or sedated to the point where they were sleeping.
Organization Overview and Culture
Kaiser is huge; it has 156,000 employees total, including 13,000 physicians serving 8.7 million members across the nation. Its headquarters are here in
The manager of the Surgery department of Kaiser's Terra Linda campus is Meredith Jones, RN, and when she is absent, Ginny McLeod steps in as manager. The leader of the doctors is Dr. Marla Anderson. The management is very streamlined and, although slightly flexible, rules are important and not disregarded (especially HIPPA [medical privacy protocol.])
(Sources)
http://adminfellowship.kp.org/kaiser.html
http://ckp.kp.org/newsroom/national/archive/nat_071220_haart.html
Career Path to Top
Meredith Jones, my supervisor and the manager of the Surgery Clinic, had an interesting ride to the top. She started as an entry-level nursing assistant, and worked her way through college prerequisites. After a couple years like this, she decided to "buckle down" and go to nursing school, which she completed in two years at a junior college in San Jose. She switched from department to department in Kaiser; going from general medical to surgical to orthopedics to telemotry (reading monitors.) After a long stint in the pediatric department, she decided she wanted to get into management. She didn't get the opening for the Pediatric manager, but she continued to interview for other departments, even for ones she wasn't interested in - she would ask the interviewer for pointers and let them know she wanted to hone her skills. Eventually Kaiser asked her if she was interested in becoming the surgery manager, where she's at presently. Ms. Jones' story exemplifies Kaiser's commitment to exposing talent from within.
To be a surgeon in the surgery department (which one could argue is also the "top,") one needs to do the traditional education-intensive doctor's route. After completing an undergraduate degree, one needs to be accepted into and pass four more years of medical school, and then become a resident to further hone one's skills. Board certification is also mandatory for surgeons.
Source for surgeon statistics:
Bureau of Labor Statistics staff. December 18, 2007. Physicians and Surgeons. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos074.htm
To be a surgeon in the surgery department (which one could argue is also the "top,") one needs to do the traditional education-intensive doctor's route. After completing an undergraduate degree, one needs to be accepted into and pass four more years of medical school, and then become a resident to further hone one's skills. Board certification is also mandatory for surgeons.
Source for surgeon statistics:
Bureau of Labor Statistics staff. December 18, 2007. Physicians and Surgeons. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos074.htm
How My Internship Fits/Does Not Fit My Future
I think I'm (figuratively) killing people when they ask me, "so, do you want to be a doctor?" when they hear about my internship. I kind of waffle, saying, "well, I have one more year of high school and four more years of undergraduate work before I'm confronted with the question of medical school. There are a lot of fields with which I am not acquainted at all, such as physics, of which many students are enamored. I know I'm going to do something science-heavy in college, so I should have the prerequisites well-met. Doing this internship has in no way turned me off to the idea of working in a hospital, but the fit wasn't snug like a good glove; more like the glove in OJ Simpson's trial (yucky analogy, I know.) The strict hierarchy; the supremacy of doctors and serf-like status of medical assistants, and stressing of efficiency and expediency didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. The distinction of Dr. So-and-so versus "Becky" (even though Rebecca Shelley is a Nurse Practitioner and has gone to school for a long time) is also a reinforcement of fitting in one's place.
I tell people I'm going to get a double major in "something sciencey and something regarding history" for my undergraduate, and I think the internship makes me more likely to want to develop a medical graduate degree off of my "sciencey" undergraduate degree. They should be happy with that.
I tell people I'm going to get a double major in "something sciencey and something regarding history" for my undergraduate, and I think the internship makes me more likely to want to develop a medical graduate degree off of my "sciencey" undergraduate degree. They should be happy with that.
Advice to New Interns
When in the office, be sure to ask the medical assistants for assignments; they are congenial and often have things to do when you're at loose ends.
In this internship, when the doctors and nurses are working, most of them think students are to be seen and not heard. Regardless of whether you're chatting with the patients to get their mind off of their pending operation/actual operation in the minor room under a local anesthetic, or if you're asking the doctor, "Why would you do that?" or "Why would you advise this?" the doctors may become irate and complain. Even if one is passing by their office and they seem to be doing nothing, just say "Good morning," and that is all; when these doctors are at their desks they may be doing important scheduling on the computer.
If you're faint at the sight of blood or gore, you may be able to stomach this job; the OR features a bunch of visceral gore, but nobody is forcing you to go there. In the clinic, the minor operations done in the Minor Room feature little blood and if there is blood the surgeon uses a cauterizing tool to stop the bleeding. Then there's the smell... but it isn't too pungent.
When the medical assistants tell you how to set up the table for minor procedures, or how to do anything else, be sure to write it down if you think you'll forget; the medical assistants are often very busy rooming patients or calling people to set things up etc. You may have a while before you have a chance to ask them what to do again, and by then you may feel stupid for not knowing what to for hours.
My final piece of advice is to ask as much as possible to go into the Operating Room; you can have a slow day at the clinic (those often don't feel very good) but I have never been bored in the Operating Room. There, be sure to dress warmly (as it is very cold) and be sure not to touch the sterile trays. The doctors in the OR are in a much better mood than they are in the Minor Room, because in the OR the patients are knocked out and it isn't as weird to talk about stuff; I've had a doctor point out the seminiferous tubules of a man when he was getting his hernia repaired and told me that if he snipped those, the man would be sterile. "We want to watch out for that!" he joked, pincing it with his laparoscopic claw. The OR is fun fun fun 'till your doctor takes your scrubs away. (awful Beach Boys pun)
In this internship, when the doctors and nurses are working, most of them think students are to be seen and not heard. Regardless of whether you're chatting with the patients to get their mind off of their pending operation/actual operation in the minor room under a local anesthetic, or if you're asking the doctor, "Why would you do that?" or "Why would you advise this?" the doctors may become irate and complain. Even if one is passing by their office and they seem to be doing nothing, just say "Good morning," and that is all; when these doctors are at their desks they may be doing important scheduling on the computer.
If you're faint at the sight of blood or gore, you may be able to stomach this job; the OR features a bunch of visceral gore, but nobody is forcing you to go there. In the clinic, the minor operations done in the Minor Room feature little blood and if there is blood the surgeon uses a cauterizing tool to stop the bleeding. Then there's the smell... but it isn't too pungent.
When the medical assistants tell you how to set up the table for minor procedures, or how to do anything else, be sure to write it down if you think you'll forget; the medical assistants are often very busy rooming patients or calling people to set things up etc. You may have a while before you have a chance to ask them what to do again, and by then you may feel stupid for not knowing what to for hours.
My final piece of advice is to ask as much as possible to go into the Operating Room; you can have a slow day at the clinic (those often don't feel very good) but I have never been bored in the Operating Room. There, be sure to dress warmly (as it is very cold) and be sure not to touch the sterile trays. The doctors in the OR are in a much better mood than they are in the Minor Room, because in the OR the patients are knocked out and it isn't as weird to talk about stuff; I've had a doctor point out the seminiferous tubules of a man when he was getting his hernia repaired and told me that if he snipped those, the man would be sterile. "We want to watch out for that!" he joked, pincing it with his laparoscopic claw. The OR is fun fun fun 'till your doctor takes your scrubs away. (awful Beach Boys pun)
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