Tulane Pharmacology Volunteer Blog

 For the month of November, I volunteered for 4 hours at UMC. I volunteered for a shorter amount of time than I normally would as I have met the threshold for the hours required for this semester (12 hours). I have volunteered for a total of 19 hours during the past 3 months. During my time at UMC, I volunteered in the ortho trauma unit where I will likely be spending the remainder of my time in terms of volunteering. During my first day at the ortho trauma unit, I was taught how to pick up and answer phone calls from patients. Typically the patients would request something such as a bed pan or pain medication. I would then tell the patient that I would notify their respective nurse before doing so. I also had to track down on a sheet of paper which room called, the reason why the patient called, the time the patient called, the nurse who was notified of the patient's request, and the time the nurse was notified. The previous modules were not so bad, as I have figured out a way of ...

 In  the month of October, I have volunteered at UMC for 12 hours (3 hours every Sunday). I have been in the radiology department at UMC where the techs have allowed me to follow them around, so it was more of a shadowing experience this month. I have been reassigned to a different department and will start volunteering for 2 hours in the ortho trauma unit on Sundays moving forward, so I will be expecting to be involved in more duties. The volunteer coordinator told me that I would involved in small tasks that would help out nurses such as speaking with the patients and letting the nurses know what they need or bringing the patients a cup of water if they requested it. The past ANS & CV modules have been difficult as Dr. Katakam had warned the class about. There were numerous drugs to remember along with their indications, contraindications, and mechanisms of actions. I still did fine on the exams in the ANS & CV module despite not participating in the group study sess...

 This past Sunday (9/24/23) I volunteered at UMC for 3 hours in the radiology department. During my interview prior to my first volunteer day, I chose the radiology department after being informed that they were in need of volunteers. I decided to volunteer at UMC specifically mainly after hearing about the volunteering opportunity from my peers during my undergrad years at the University of New Orleans. I had volunteered at UMC before during my undergrad years where I volunteered in both the ED and radiology department. In the ED, I sat at the liaison desk and brought visitors back to see a patient. I also went to grab wheelchairs for any patients coming in who were in need of one. I was also occasionally tasked with doing rounds as well. I decided to return to the radiology department as I heard that volunteers in that department were going to be more involved. This was something I had expressed interest in before leaving several months ago. While volunteering in the radiology de...