Extra Blog Caption 3

This is another thyroidectomy I assisted in, they are uncommon to find in first world countries because they are treated usually at the first sign of a growth in the neck

Extra Blog Caption 2

This is me being taught and then executing a lumbar puncture with the goal of administering anesthesia through the spinal comumn

Extra Blog Caption

This is me assisting in a thyroidectomy, in addition to assisting during, I got to perform an uninterrupted sub Q suture

Senior Project Reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your Block Presentation and/or your senior project? Why?
I am proud of my activity, as i think it was very unique and well executed for something that complicated in theory. 


(2) Questions to Consider

a.     What assessment would you give yourself on your Block Presentation (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

b.     What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

AE       P          AP       CR       NC

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
I think my presentation worked a lot better than I thought it would as far as speaking. 
(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would have you done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?
I would have taken part in more operations during my independent component in the Philippines.
(5) Finding Value
How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors?   Be specific and use examples.
Due to the ability to go on the medical mission, i have gained experiences that will undoubtedly help me when it comes time to put them into practice again in the future... .suturing...

Mentorship

Content:

LIA Response to blog:

    Literal

·     Log of specific hours with a total and a description of your duties updated on the right hand side of your blog

Done

·     Contact Name and Mentorship Place

Robinson V. Baron MD. Cirtus Valley Hospital

    Interpretive

     What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

The most important thing I gained throughout my experiences with my mentor would be my reasurance of character. There have been many trials agianst my morals these past few years, some of which I have failed, but this mission served to remind me that I enjoy helping people, I want to do it, not only because of the training and learning I receive, but because with the not so happy things and events I hear about taking place everyday, the humbled looks on everyones faces and grattitude restored my faith in humanity. 

   Applied

     How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

The mission taught me what could be done to further answer my essential question, but more so provided me with leads upon which I explored upon my arrival home. For example, my third answer of donating supplies came directly from seeing just how important tools are when a mission takes place, and how much the lack of those tools can hinder the work we are trying to do. 

Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

My essential question is "What is the best way a medical missionary can provide medical aid to people who  live in poverty in the Philippines?". My first and best answer is "The best way a medical missionary can provide medical aid to those living in poverty in the Philippines is by Teaching local practitioners to perform specific surgeries themselves". My second and third answers are "The best way a medical missionary can provide medical aid to those living in poverty in the Philippines is for local medical personnel to give back to their communities in the form of said medical aid." and "The best way a medical missionary can provide medical aid to those living in poverty in the Philippines is by donating tools and supplies that local hospitals can use to treat patients". The reason that my answer one is better than my other two answers is because it has many tried and tested organizations that prove teaching to be an extremely effective way for performing medical missions, as well as the fact that since only doctors are allowed to do anything above basic medical care, and because there are so few of them, expanding the range to include more medical personnel would greatly increase the amount of people who can help those in poverty. The other thing that makes my answer one my best answer is it does not matter how much doctors want to help people or if they have all the tools in the world if they do not know how to perform some procedures in the first place. The thing that makes my answer one worthy of being a quality answer can be seen in the example of Dillan Ellegala's organization Smile Train. Smile Train is based around the philosophy of teaching a man to fish rather than giving him one, and after starting this organization based around teaching local medical personnel instead of doing the work for them, the organization was able to not only increase the amount of people able to be seen on an annual basis, but by making surgeries more common it also greatly reduced the amount of money each operation cost. The most important statistic proving my answer as a quality one could be found with the comparison of how many patients Smile Train and a conventional mission that performs the same kind of procedure, will help this year. While the conventional mission will go on to perform under ten thousand surgeries this year, Smile Train will go on to perform over one hundred and twenty thousand, proving teaching to be a highly effective method. 

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?

a. My best answer came very quickly to me, during the first couple of research checks at the beginning of senior year. I came into my topic of medical missionary work with the bias that there must be a more effective way of doing them, as I knew from past research that dependency and other issues in quality of care arise from a conventional medical mission. Using my bias, I aimed specifically at finding an organization that used a different method at performing a medical mission, at which point I stumbled across  The Post and Courier's "One Brain at a Time, Part 2: Are Medical Missions Doing More Harm Than Good?", Which talked about a doctor who theorized after taking part on a conventional mission that there must be a more effective way of producing a medical mission. This doctor's idea was to teach local medical personnel to perform medical care themselves, so it could be performed year round. Long story short, his idea worked, and at that moment I knew that this article and this idea of teaching local medical personnel fit my essential question so well that I did not think I would come across another answer so better tailored to it. Fast forward months later, and I was right, While my other two answers are very essential in increasing the effectiveness of a medical mission, looking at the statistics and specifics of doctors in the Philippines has proven why teaching would be the most effective method to improving upon the conventional medical mission. 

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

a. One problem I can remember facing with my interviews is timing and scheduling. I found that many of the people I wanted to interview had very tight schedules and it was difficult finding a spot where we could sit down and have a deep interview on a topic that really demanded a lot of time and in depth discussion. The resolution came with better time management and scheduling appointments more ahead of time. Another set of issues that I faced had to do with my independent components 1 & 2 which was myself taking part on a medical mission to the Philippines for two weeks. The first and most specific problem came during an assist on a minor case with one Dr. Bautista, a regular local doctor who has ben taking part on the mission for many years. What happened was that Dr. Bautista experienced some issues during the case that led to the patient bleeding heavily, and in a sort of hurry, asked me to hand him a specific tool which I had never had heard of, so because I was the only one scrubbed up and had no idea what tool the doctor was talking about, Dr. Bautista had to literally stop what he was doing and left the patient bleeding while he grabbed the tool. I got yelled at, and I understand, it was a high stress situation and should have been better prepared if I wanted to assist so badly. The solution for this issue came with me spending the next few hours learning the names of the basic tools I would need to be prepared to hand whoever I was assisting. A more academic problem that came with the medical mission had to do with getting back into the groove of school upon my arrival back from the Philippines. I had an idea that it would happen, as the same situation occurred back freshman year when I took part on the same medical mission, and I just find that coming home from such a high stress and high focussed environment where everything is unpredictable, back into the normal day to day life of school, its a hard transition that I have not been able to master. The solution to this issue was the attempting of telling my teacher far ahead of schedule during my junior year so that I would make up anything I would miss, and while it did work better than my freshman year, I still had a very difficult time adjusting to life back home again. 

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

a. My two most significant sources have to be my independent components (1 & 2), and the article that helped lead me to my first and best answer, which was posted by The Post and Courier titles "One Brain at a Time, Part 2: Are Medical Missions Doing More Harm Than Good?", in which it described Dillan Ellegala, a doctor, who after taking part on operation smile, theorized that a more effective way in performing medical missions can be done by teaching local medical personnel to perform medical care themselves. The reason why my independent component was such a significant source to me was because while all of my answers are realistic, actually performing a medical mission takes so much more than realistic answers, I found that anyone I interviewed had the same belief that the most important way a medical mission can provide medical aid to those living in poverty in the Philippines is not so much by teaching or offering material goods as help, but rather having compassion to help whoever they could, and while that answer may not be as credible as the ones I chose, my personal beliefs are that there needs to be so much more involving character for a medical missionary to do all they can do. 

Be prepared with evidence and specific examples to support any response.  It is also significant to cite sources as you explain.

Independent Component 2

LITERAL
(a) Statement saying: “I, student name, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.”
1. I, Robinson Baron, affrim that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work. 
(b) Cite your source regarding who or what article or book helped you complete the independent component
2. The source that helped me complete my independent component would have to be the medical mission trip I took to the Philippines. 
(c) Provide a digital spreadsheet (aka log of the 30 hours).   Post it next to your mentorship log.
3. Done
(d) Explanation of what you completed.    
I went to the Philippines and assisted in various major and minor surgeries, performing tasks ranging from simple to complicated sutures, to lumbar punctures, administering anesthesia, and making basic cuts and incisions. 

INTERPRETIVE 
Defend your work and explain how the significant parts of your component and how it demonstrates 30 hours of work.   Provide evidence (photos, transcript, art work, videos, etc) of the 30 hours of work.  

Suture machine!

APPLIED
How did the component help you answer your EQ? Please include specific examples to illustrate how it helped.
a. This component allowed me to gain first hand insights and back up the research answers that I had found previously, and on top, helped teach me that even though the answers I gave are black and white for realistic purposes, that it takes something more, like understanding and compassion, to do what medical missionaries do.