I was so excited to be back this morning! The day began with a warming welcome where my peers and I got to express our emotions towards each other by going around and writing little notes on each others' letters. I exceedingly enjoyed ripping my heart out onto each letter and reading everyones' sweet notes. I love my MedEx Family so much!
We then had a lecture with Dr. Cull. He shared with us his inspiring story of his scholar "failure" of being rejected from med school and then gave us advise on how he picked himself up, worked harder than ever, and endured those difficult times to be who he is today, a Vascular Surgeon. Dr. Cull humbled himself and clarified that any average person can be a surgeon; this eased many of the students notion towards the career of surgery.
Tier I and III then met for a Poverty Simulation. In this simulation we were divided into "families" of three or more where we got to budget our earnings in a time span of one month. My family consisted of a Grandfather, Grandmother, Grandson, and a nine year old Granddaughter who I played the role of. During the simulation, my Grandparents had to work while my brother and I attended school. When my Grandparents went to work or any of the stations they had to have transportation passes. My family and I were extremely stressed and worried we would not have enough to pay for our expenses. There was so much to pay for: mortgage, utilities, groceries, clothes, transportation, illnesses/medication, and even a miscellaneous $50 for a pluming issue. We were on week four and had almost made it through the simulation with enough money until we got robbed. Someone had stolen $500 from my Grandfather's pocket as he was going to pay our mortgage. We were immensely disturbed and disappointed because we were not aware people would steal from us the way they did. Overall, this activity helped open my eyes to some of the things many individuals may endure and the stress they go through just to have groceries for the week or to make sure their house does not get evicted.
Following lunch, Dr. Howard talked to us about Pharmacy. He did an awesome job explaining the pathway one should take to become a pharmacist, the different career paths, income, and many more aspects reagrding the profession. Dr. Howard elucidated many sides of pharmacy that I had never thought of. For instance, he pointed out a pharmacist is a free local source for patients who need assistance with any brief questions they may have since Pharmacists have a very broad medical knowledge. I enjoyed listening to Dr. Howard and am so glad to had the opportunity to have talked with him today.
We then had a connections activity organized by Sanjana and Scott. We were asked to write down a fun fact about us on a sheet of paper and turn it in to them. They then took those fun facts and read them out for us to match the facts to the students. I found out some startling things about my peers. One who almost broke her brother's nose by shoving it up with her finger because he made her angry, or another who spends a lot of her time watching videos of hair split ends getting cut off on Instagram, or another who has a deformed foot, it was very interesting finding out these things that we all now have as inside jokes with each other.
It was time for another amazing lecture! Dr. Sarah Fabiano talked to us in regards to the Emergency Room. She was extremely authentic and made sure to not sugar code anything; Dr. Fabiano was aware that we wanted to hear the bare truth of how things run within her career and she did exactly that. She was not afraid of telling us her salary and that we will probably be in debt for the rest of our lives. She showed us some of the cases she's dealt with which quickly made me realize I can not work in the ER. Dr. Fabiano mentioned non-traumatic instances such as, bone tumors, chicken pox, failed liver, and even an aorta that arose to the skin that looked as if it was a worm or straw. To work in the ER, one must be willing to work with a variety of patients and disasters.
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