UMR STUDENT BLOG

Addiction in Health Care: a real problem

For my CoLab class, we are usually assigned a couple news articles to read every week that relate to what we learn in class for that specific class. This week we were assigned a particularly interesting article on drug addiction among health care professionals, and I was honestly quite shocked at some of the numbers and stories presented. This made me think it would be good to reflect on, especially with my mother having died from prescription drug abuse, affected by the opioid epidemic in a bit of a different way.

A review from 2007 shows that upwards of 100,000 doctors, nurses, health care aids, and medical technicians are either abusing or are dependent on prescription drugs in a given year. This is a huge problem, similar to pilots or other commercial vehicle drivers being addicted to hard drugs because of the amount of secondary people that can be negatively affected- patients especially. The article also mentions an individual doctor who was stealing patients’ IV medications and then replacing them with saline. This not only puts the patients at risk medication-wise (if they were on necessary pain medication after surgery and then were immediately taken off, there’s obvious negatives there), but he also infected at least 46 of these patients with Hepatitis C, potentially being worse than the missing medications.

It is often times easy for health care professionals to hide their substance abuse due to the fact that no state in the US has universal drug testing requirements, and many medical facilities also do not necessarily have regulations when it comes to drug testing. These same facilities often also do not have video surveillance or methods of auditing to track where certain drugs go (for example, the Mayo pharmacy department audits the lab I work in every week for the medications that are used and this is standard practice).

The most complex problem with health care professionals abusing prescriptions is how to deal with the professionals that are abusing them: should they be prosecuted for doing illegal things, or should they be treated as having a mental illness? I have somewhat of a nuanced view on this- if an individual is abusing drugs and threatening patients’ well being, there should be actions taken that are more focused on rehabilitation and getting them healthy again. However, I feel that the people undergoing this rehabilitation treatment should continue to be monitored, and subject to random drug testing. If the individual in question continues to do things like steal narcotics or take patients’ medication, then there should be legal involvement, or at the very least access to a wider range of rehabilitation treatment.

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blogger

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/15/doctors-addicted-drugs-health-care-diversion/7588401/

1 year ago

Life in the lab

For any people interested in working in a research lab (or any research in general), this blog will be for you! I will be talking about some of the things I do at my lab job that people might be curious about. This blog took quite a while to write because I did not want to break any of the privacy rules that Mayo has, but this will still be an inside look at a research job!

When I first became interested in getting a job at Mayo, I looked at the UMR student employment page (found at https://r.umn.edu/administration/employment-opportunities/student) and discovered I was interested in a position in a nephrology lab that required work study and experience with upper level high school sciences (I had both!). My first step was to call the PI (principal investigator) of the lab that was listed and I set up a tour of the lab. The PI I work with is really amazing and personable so I ultimately got hired without a formal interview, though he did ask me a few questions about myself (what jobs I’ve had, what I like to do in my free time, what student life at UMR is like, etc). I found out I was hired on my 20th birthday!

After going through the tuberculosis test, drug test, and onboarding process I got to start working. The main thing I did when I was first hired was washing and autoclaving dishes. Autoclaving is a process in which glassware is put into a big washing oven that gets really hot and is sterilized.

Once I had worked for a week or so and had gotten my bearings, I learned how to flip fruit flies. We keep them in vials in refrigerator-sized incubators (if you took genetics in high school, you probably dealt with the same vials). We anesthetize the flies (which doesn’t hurt or kill them) and put them into new vials so they have more food. Each vial has a label representative of the genes the flies are bred to have. We even have some lines that were imported from Scotland! Fruit flies share around 90% of DNA with humans, so they are great to look at when it comes to developing research. I also make fly food, which consists of a lot of baking products as well as molasses. It’s hilarious when I’m hungry while doing it because it smells a little bit like Malt O’Meal (a Minnesotan hot cereal I ate a lot as a kid).

I also make solutions to use with electrophysiology (which is something I don’t fully understand yet- though I’m learning!) and I enjoy using some of the knowledge I’ve gained in general chemistry at UMR in a job setting. I make quite a few solutions that have to be titrated and use a pH meter quite a bit. I’ve also gotten to practice my factor label method with measuring out grams of solid to make a specific concentration of liquid. It reinforces the fact that a lot of the seemingly trivial things I’m learning at UMR are actually incredibly important in the “real world.”

I would genuinely recommend working in a research lab for anyone who is interested in research at all, or even anyone who is interested in a career in the medical field. Even if you don’t think you would like research, it is still an incredibly interesting thing to do. A lot of doctors also do research or are somehow involved in the process. I was not necessarily specifically interested in research and I now am thinking of an eventual career in research.

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blogger

1 year ago

Tagged: #sciencelabs mayoclinic UMRochester research college collegelife UMR

Tips for registration

Use Google calendar or schedule builder to plan your schedule
Planning out what your schedule will look like is really helpful for choosing class times (and will help you avoid having weird breaks or days where you have too many classes)

Meet with your student success coach

If you haven’t already, make sure to have a meeting with your success coach. They’ll help you plan out your schedule according to what you’re planning to do career-wise. They can also help you with activities like job shadows and informational interviews that are useful for career planning.

Pay attention to your registration time
Definitely be aware of your registration time, it’s advantageous to register on time so you don’t get waitlisted for any classes you need. You can access your registration time on MyU.

If you get waitlisted, don’t freak out
You can definitely still get into classes you need, especially if you have wiggle room in your schedule. It’s also helpful to have “back up classes” for things like humanities requirements where there’s multiple options of classes to take.

Talk to professors or your coach if you have conflicting class times
I’ve had friends experience conflicting class times for required classes and the UMR faculty is great at rearranging certain classes for students that have conflicts.

Pay attention to how many credits you’re taking

I made this mistake the first semester of my sophomore year and was very overwhelmed (and my GPA definitely suffered from that).

Plan out your schedule with work, clubs, or other things
If you know you work overnight shifts, probably don’t sign up for an 8 AM class, if you know you have meetings for clubs, probably don’t sign up for night classes (or classes that conflict at all.)

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blogger

1 year ago - 1 note

Tagged: #registerforclasses college collegelife umrochester umr

My top 5 favorite scientists

1.Marie Curie

Marie Curie is ultimately one of the scientists that is responsible for why I am now in the science field. I remember reading a children’s book in second grade that detailed Curie’s curiosity and tenacity as a child and relating heavily to it. Also, being a woman scientist in her time was all but completely unheard of, which just makes her that much more cool.

2. Stephen Hawking

I was very saddened by his recent death, but he also died on the 300th anniversary of Galileo’s death as well as the 139th anniversary of Einstein’s birth, as well as pi day, so I think that has meaning. I honestly understand a minute amount of what Hawking did in his field, but quantum mechanics and his outlooks on philosophy and science fascinate me.

3. Hedy Lamarr

Actress and scientist? Hedy Lamarr was both. She and a composer invented a frequency-hopping system during early World War II that more or less ended up turning into bluetooth technology. She also starred in 18 films. Neat!

4. Rosalind Franklin

I tend to like women in science, because I’m a woman in science. Franklin ultimately discovered the structure of DNA- how cool is that?! The central dogma of biology would not even exist as it does today had Franklin not done what she did.

5. Nikola Tesla

Some do not like Tesla because of how eccentric he was, but that is why he is one of my favorites! I remember watching a Mythbusters episode on testing some of Tesla’s blueprints and they failed miserably, which in my opinion speaks volumes to the nature of science.

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blogger

1 year ago

Tagged: #UMRochester 5scientists #UMR science top5 5 RochesterMN college collegelife

Do nice guys really finish last?

Looking around on Google for medical news, I found an article from Medical News Today titled “Being nice, or being smart: What leads to success?” and thought I would give it a read. I recently had a job interview and I’m no stranger to the working world so I thought it might be relevant to my life, especially with employment being discussed a lot in the article. One of the universities that provided research was the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, I thought that was also pretty neat.

The article states that there might ultimately be some truth in the belief that “nice guys finish last” in the sense that solely being nice will not serve one well in the long run. While there is inherent value in being nice or cooperative with one’s peers, it is also necessary to be able to be intelligent and be able to “act smart.” Acting smart according to this article means being able to be conscientious and agreeable, but to have strategic intention when it comes to traits like these. The team argues that the results suggest we teach our children to be smart, rather than nice if we want them to move forward societally, which I both agree and disagree with.

I obviously am not a parent, but I do feel there is necessity to raise young people to be both nice and smart, going along with the idea of being conscientious and agreeable, but at the same time being smart enough to know when to act differently. At my first retail job, I never said no to taking a shift, or buying my boss coffee, or really anything. I was incredibly nice, but I also didn’t really know when to stop (which effectively made me a doormat). Over the years I’ve acquired the ability or “intelligence” in employment to be able to say “okay, I need a day off because I have x, y, z going on and I’m too busy to focus on work” while still being cordial.

I disagree with raising young people to solely be smart and to not focus on any “being nice” qualities because I’ve dealt with a lot of people who are incredibly smart but have little to no social etiquette. I guess I would rather have a decent mix of being sociable or polite in interactions while still retaining my knowledge, and to even use these skills in tandem. “Strategic, cooperative behavior” seems like a good way to be, and to even move forward in life, at least in my opinion.

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blog

Source: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321293.php

1 year ago

Tagged: #UMRochester UMRhealtchscience healthscience niceguysfinshlast UMR collegelife

UMR SPRING BREAK 2018 PLANS

Hey everyone!!

Spring break is finally here!!!!

Time to relax and sleep….NOT!!!

This spring break, I have tons of homework to do before I go back to Rochester. Most of break, I’ll be staying home in my cozy pj’s studying and editing some videos that I have for the blog.

Highlights of My Break

I’ll be celebrating my dad’s 52nd birthday. I made him a little green bird plush toy. I thought “why not make something for my dad!?”. If he doesn’t like it, I got a back up plan. PLAN B: I’ll just give my dad a crisp twenty dollar bill instead (MY OWN HARD EARNED CASH!)

(I am a novice at sewing)

I will also be celebrating my one year anniversary with my boyfriend early because we will be busy the day of. I am currently working on another plush for him, but this one will be reversible! One side will be an owl and the other side is going to be a penguin! I am also working on a drawing for him as well. I will be hands holding onto a heart. Those hands will be giving the heart to other set of hands. Awww!

(It’s something similar to this…)

Well now that you’re caught up with my plans for break… What do you have planned for this spring break? Are you staying home or traveling? Wherever you go, stay safe and have a great time!

Yours truly,

Alissa

UMR Student Blogger

1 year ago

Tagged: #UMRochester springbreakplans springbreak UMR collegelife college studyonspringbreak breaktime collegebreak springishere

My Favorite Class This Semester

My favorite class this semester definitely has to be Community CoLab. I wasn’t really sure how I would like it when I first started this semester because I have never had any class like it before. CoLab is a CLI class that ultimately revolves around an engagement project in the community. The main point-heavy assignments in CoLab are critical reflections which involve “hands, head, and heart.” Hands refers to what your engagement team is specifically doing, head refers to what you have learned in the class so far, and heart refers to your emotional response in regard to what you have learned in class so far. I love these assignments because I love reflective writing (and all writing, haha!). There’s something great about being able to articulate myself in regard to a bigger thing than myself as well as being involved in the community.

The engagement project I am part of involves the Rochester Public Library and we are making audio-visual projects of diverse community members telling their story. So far we have a UMR Health Core student and an older man who lives in the Francis (which is long-term housing for people who have experienced chronic homelessness). I had never really gone to the library before this year, but it has now become my study home as well as being where I work on my CoLab project. Something cool about the public library is that there is a sound booth we are using to record people’s audio stories and it has a very professional feel (as well as great sound quality).

One very interesting thing I have learned about the world in CoLab is the concept of “wicked problems.” Wicked problems are problems that exist in the world where there is no one solution, and that the solutions currently in place are either not completely addressing the problem as a whole or are not completely effective. The populations that experience wicked problems are often times experiencing more than one wicked problem at a time; they often go hand in hand. For example, if someone suffers from homelessness, the odds that they are also experiencing mental or physical health problems, inability to consistently buy healthy food, problems with drugs, or unemployment are higher than if they were not. The solutions for populations experiencing many wicked problems at the same time are even more complex. Things that can present challenges for these populations include homeless shelters not wanting to house people who struggle with drug addiction or employers not wanting to hire people with a mental illness or who do not have a permanent address. These challenges present blocks for any attempt to solve wicked problems. Before taking CoLab, I knew wicked problems existed, but I didn’t quite understand the severity or prevalence of them as they exist in the world.

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blogger

1 year ago

My Hardest Class This Semester

My hardest class this semester is general chemistry II. I will be talking a bit about the positives and negatives in this class in my experience.

I liked organic chemistry I and II quite a bit last year, and I’ve learned this was because ochem is incredibly conceptual where gen chem has a ton of math and is just different in general (no pun intended). The switching of thinking from memorizing reaction mechanisms and how many electron pairs go on each electronegative element from memorizing how to manipulate certain equations in regard to chemical reactions and memorizing how elements I haven’t seen since high school dissociate in water. I also struggle with the “milestones,” quizzes on the bare minimum of material that are pass/fail that require an 85% or higher to pass. I make a lot of dumb mistakes on the quizzes because there’s a lot of pressure to get such a high grade, but they aren’t the worst things in the world, especially when they’re all on things that you need to keep fresh in your mind.

(don’t forget your calculators though you need it to calculate pH 😉)

Another thing I struggle with in gen chem is the flipped classroom model. I never experienced flipped classrooms in high school except for when a teacher was going to be gone for a long time so it was new for me this year. This combined with the more challenging material found in gen chem II is a big reason why gen chem is my most difficult class. If I had to say anything to future UMR gen chem students I would say WATCH THE VIDEOS & DO YOUR PRECLASS! The preclass questions are very easy points and the videos will make your understanding of the material a lot better than if you don’t watch them. Xavier’s videos are sometimes dauntingly long (14 minutes seems like long at times), but the information in them will be insanely useful.

Where I feel like I flourish in gen chem is in the lab portion of the class, which is a pretty significant component of the class grade. I enjoy hands-on activities a lot and all of the labs we do are relevant to things we are learning about in lecture. The lab reports, as tedious as they can get, all have questions at the end of them which correspond to different lecture concepts. Answering the lecture-esque questions with real data and in relation to lab activities kind of makes up for the lack of conceptual-ness I feel in gen chem, which definitely helps me learn the material. Dr. Larsen’s dry humor and anecdotes about his college experience also make lab really fun (especially when the labs are very repetitive!)

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blogger

1 year ago

Tagged: #UMR UMROCHESTER collegelife springsemester semester harderestclass class classes Rochestermn genchem chemistry

Influenza: “One of the world’s greatest public health challenges”

The flu… The thing you generally get a shot to try and prevent every year. To clarify, this flu is the “I have a high fever, cold symptoms, and feel like I just got hit by a truck” sickness (Influenza), not the “I have stomach cramps and feel like I just got hit by a truck” sickness (Gastroenteritis)- you’d be surprised how many people colloquially use “flu” for both. I digress.

The 2017-18 flu outbreak is quite a bit worse than previous years (excluding 2010-11) in the sense that a vast amount of people are becoming ill. There have also been numerous deaths from the flu or flu-related complications like pneumonia where there are healthy adults dying because they did not go into the doctor. According to the CDC, 53 children so far have died from the flu in the United States alone this flu season and many, many more have been hospitalized.

An issue with this year’s big flu (H3N2, coincidently the same strain I had the first week of this semester!) is that it was not present in this year’s flu vaccine. That being said, the CDC does recommend people still get their flu shot if they haven’t already because it can lessen the severity and duration of the flu, as well as preventing you from getting infected with other strains. The flu outbreak of this year does not speak to the efficacy of vaccines because the only reason H3N2 was not included in this year’s vaccine is because it was not necessarily projected to be a prevalent strain.

Surprise!

One thing I do have qualms about is the fact that Tamiflu (the main antiviral drug prescribed for the flu) is in shortage this year due to the massive amount of people who have gotten sick. Personally, I went to the doctor, got the nasal swab, was confirmed to have influenza A, and then was sent home with the typical “drink lots of fluids and get lots of rest” they say when you have a common cold. Only I didn’t. I had a 103.5 fever (at the highest), my vision was vignetting, I felt like I was freezing despite having a fever, I was coughing constantly, you get the picture. I felt the most sick with a cold I’ve felt in my life and was basically just told to go home and do nothing once I confirmed I wasn’t pregnant, asthmatic, or diabetic.

I don’t want to come off as dramatic or having an agenda, but I find the idea of having a shortage of medication that many people are in need of in a developed country to be frankly ridiculous. In an ideal world, you would go to the doctor when you’re that sick, get either antibiotics or antivirals, and then you would get better. There are also shortages of IV bags currently because they are produced in Puerto Rico, which got hit by Hurricane Maria back in September. I feel the United States should be doing more to care for the people who reside in it, whether that be funding research more heavily, educating the masses on how to live healthy lives, or even just being able to make things like IV bags or medication in higher quantities so people in need are not just simply turned away.

Until Next Time,

SHANNON

UMR Student Blogger

Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/t0202-flu-update-activity.html, https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/16/health/iv-bag-shortage/index.html

1 year ago

GOALS FOR THE SEMESTER

Since coming back for second semester, I made a few goals for myself. I want to focus on four aspects to improve my life: physical, academic, emotional, and mental. During my first semester of college I felt like I was lacking in some of these areas.

Physical

Last semester: I didn’t work out at ALL! I was basically a couch potato.

This semester: My goal is to work out for an hour at least 3 or 4 times a week. I’m not trying to lose weight, but actually, I’m trying to gain weight! I weigh about 103 lbs and I want to be 110 lbs. I would like to be able to donate blood. I’m a bit too skinny, so if I can gain muscle that would make me feel more comfortable.

Academics

Last semester: I did pretty good. I got a few A’s, but mostly B’s.

This semester: I want to try to get more B+ or A-’s in my courses. I know I can do better than last semester! I just need to STOP procrastinating on papers and exams.

Mentally

This semester: I want to deal with stress better. I’ve never really been able to cope with stress well. Instead of having mini mental breakdowns, I plan on writing more. It helps relieve some tension.

Emotionally

This semester: I tend to worry about the littlest things and build up my emotions. Too much kept me up at night last semester. It was putting too much strain on my body. That is why my plan is to worry less this semester.

These goals all connect to each other. I can see that if I run or exercise, it might help me relieve some of my stress or worries. Letting you all know about my goals also keeps me accountable as well! At the end of this semester, I will write an update to let you know if I change my ways. Wish me luck!!!

Alissa

UMR Student Blogger

1 year ago

Tagged: #UMRochester collegelife UMR college collegestressrelief collegesemester collegegoals