1st Nine Weeks Journal Entries

9/10/18

My mentor is a pediatric gastroenterologist ,the process i took to find my mentor was very simple
though challenging in some ascpects like being able to meet for the frist time and the completion of the
ISM paperwork. First I wanted to get out of the obstetrics and gynecolgy field and try to obtain
knowledge on some other medical profession. I wrote down three top professions and gave them to my
pediatrician, who was willing to help find me a mentor for this school year. There were so many options
and connnections she had at various hospitals, though she and my mother helped me acquire the
perfect one. This week I was unable to obtain mentorship hours because my badge to be and observant
at Texas Childrens Hospitlal was not available,though i acquired 2 whole hours of activity hours from
meeting with my mentor to take a picture and discussing the semeter project. I am communicating daily
with my mentor about starting as soon as possible, and she is updating me on the staus of the badge to
be able to start the week of 9/17. I am very excited and I can't wait to began!

9/17/18

My Fall Independent Study Mentorship project topic is "Gastrointestinal Dieases and Diet " which will be
centered around the 3 most common Pediatric GI dieaeses. I selected this topic because I have a desire
to become a gastroenterologist who is able to provide assistance to children underserved areas of the
world like Africa. By doing this topic of reasrch i will be acquring foundational knowledge that will help
me in the near future. My mentor assisted me in chosing this topic by narrowing it down to 3 common
dieases that she well-eduacted me about,and gave me different brochures on their diet plans. Also she
had different product ideas that we were able to discuss and choose from. This week during mentorship
I was given a tour around the Texas Childrens Hospital facility , we discussed different fire plans and lock
down procedures in case of an emergency. I was shown diffent GI rooms and their opperating
rooms,and observed my mentor completed her analysis of GI procdure she had done. During my
mentorship I had the opportunity to talk to different surgeons who are in the Gastrointestinal field, who
encurged me to make good grades.Finally I got to see a transplant social worker who had been working
as a social worker for over 15 years and experinced hundreds of successful transplant matches.

9/24/18

The key points that I decided to incoperate into my mid-term presentation are the epidemiology,
pathology, pathophysiology, therapies and mangement, and the diagnosis and prognosis of all celliac,
pancreatitis, and EGID dieases. In addition I will need to reaserch the different diet plans for each
disease, the evirometnal factors that my have caused the dieases, and finally i will have to research the
signs and symptoms of these specific dieases on how one is diagnosed.The topics I chose are significtant
because they help with the overall topic of my project and this information and knowledge is needed to
excute and percise final project. During my mentorship this week I was able to observe my mentor
delivering various task to her patients like an EGD and also her acquring a history records of her patients
to determine treatment and cause. Finally I observed her doing Gastrointestinal examinations on her
patients. I acquired plenty of infromation that will help my final project which was a huge success!
10/1/ 18

During this nine weeks, I believe that I accomplished a lot. I obtained a various amounts of information
and knowledge from my mentorship process. I learned the common gastrointestional dieases that are
seen in children, which are pancreatitis, lactose intolernece, and celliac diease.Also I accomplished a
section of my final project such as the product and creating my 3D model. Observing my mentor taking
history examination as well as a gastrointestinal examination was really helpful to me by providing
different ascpects of information, that I will be able to incopprate into my project.The next nine weeks I
hope to experience more of the surgical aspects of gastroenterology as well as the different diet plans
and how they work.

2nd Nine Weeks:

10/15/18

According to my mentor my overall strengths are that I am always engaged when Dr.Dike is teaching me
new information, she also stated that I am very attentive and always asking questions when I am not
aware of certain things. Dr. Dike wrote on needs improvement that I need more reading on my project
topic, since I only know the basics of the dieases I chose to do my project on. The areas that I did not get
a five on was professional skills,development of final project, and technical skills. For professional skills I
plan to communicate more to my mentor and other doctors ant my mentorship site,as well as confident
when I am asked a question by Dr.Dike. Then for development of final project as I stated before I will
need to look deeper into my research and get more information that is collegiate level instead of just
acquiring knowldge that is not really useful.Finally for the area of technical skills I will push myself to
show material at a collegiate level as well as a professional level, and I will work on using the correct
terminology when I am talking to my mentor of other doctors. This nine weeks I will strive to fufill all the
things that I have stated to my greatest ablity and pefrom my work at a collegiate level.

10/22/18

This week I was not able to acquire mentorship hours, due to the fact that my mentor ,Dr.Dike was out
of state conducting reasearch on gastrointestinal dieases. I think the best thing about my mentorship
site is that Texas Childrens Hospital is very high- tech, they have very advance technology that is able to
do provide patients with high level care. For example, I was able to experince a 3D printing of the
gallbladder that my mentor and her team created, to explain to a patient about what they will
accomplish during surgery. What also amazed me about my mentorship site was that each doctor or
physicains had these phones that were provided by Texas Children's Hospital, andthe doctors were able
to call different physcians at any TCH site to obtain information on different dieases or patients.

10/29/18
This week I was not able to acquire mentorship hours, due to the fact that my mentor, Dr. Dike was out
of state conducting research on gastrointestinal diseases. I think the best thing about my mentorship
site is that Texas Children’s Hospital is very high- tech, they have very advance technology that is able to
do provide patients with high level care. For example, I was able to experience a 3D printing of the
gallbladder that my mentor and her team created, to explain to a patient about what they will
accomplish during surgery. What also amazed me about my mentorship site was that each doctor or
physicians had these phones that were provided by Texas Children's Hospital, and the doctors were able
to call different physicians at any TCH site to obtain information on different diseases or patients.

11/5/18

From the perspective of a patient I feel like the most frustrating thing about Texas Children's Hospital is
the wide capacity, which has multiple buildings and countless floors. Many of the patients are late to
their appointments, due to the fact that they are looking for the correct floor or building in the medical
center to go to. At my mentorship site we get countless calls from angry or lost parents trying to figure
out where their child’s appointment is located. Also from the patients perspective I think the best thing
about Texas Children’s hospital is that all of the faculty is super caring and loves to interact with its
patients, Texas Children’s hospital is also very high-tech, so if I don’t speak the English language they
have these phones, that I am able to get a translator instantly to prescribe my message to my physician.
This week at my mentorship I was able to watch two procedures of an endoscopy and an Eosinophilic
gastroenteritis, then I conducted my mentor interview, which went very well.

11/12/18

During my most recent mentorship experience I was able to watch two endoscopy procedures being
done on a patient to determine if they had inflammation their colon or a tumor, which my mentor and
her team had suspected. This procedure this procedure took about 3 hours to complete and barely any
blood was seen on the operating table. The best thing about that mentorship experience was that I was
able to experience technological procedure and the tools that were involved amazed me, though I didn't
like how much time the procedure took, since I was on my feet the whole 3 hours. For my final product,
I am almost done, and I only have to decorate and label my 3-D model, then I will be done.