The final entry

Today is my last day at my internship. It seems not long ago that I started at Mount Sinai. A total of 175 hours have been spent volunteering at the Emergency Room department. I have shared many memories with that area, and have formed a bond over the past 14 days straight at 8 hours a day. Telling someone that I would not miss that area would be a lie. When I entered those card-only doors the first time I was a bit nervous, not fully knowing my responsibilities. As the days went on I gradually began to learn the ropes. When I left those doors for the last time, I decided to say goodbye to everyone who acknowledged me during my stay there. I was surprised when I recieved the same general message from everyone. They were shocked and they did not see this comming, they said they would miss me and to work hard and stay in school. They also said I was a good volunteer, some going as far as to say that I was the best volunteer they ever had. I was equally shocked and I felt a strange emotion on the inside, one rarely felt by me. I felt like I was leaving good friends that I have known all my life, forever walking away from them. I miss them all already. It pains me to think about them, I can hardly look at pictures or recall events at Mount Sinai, for they bring back images of happiness, laughter, knowledge, adventure and intrigue. I learned so much during my short stay there. I learned that doctors and other smart people are real people too, with emotions and drama. I learned the power of hard work and repitition and dedication. I learned the value of life and wellbeing. And most importantly, I learned the power of friendship. I will miss everyone at the Emergency Room, and all the other people that I met at Mount Sinai.

2nd to last post

It is my last week here at my internship, but what happened today was completely out of the ordinary. Actually, now that I think about it, that day was, for the most part, ordinary. I mean I did my daily copying and filing. Anyway, the day was very ordinary up until that point. As the day was nearing its close for me, I saw this young adolecent walking the halls with a strange stride. I then saw his facial expression, he was clearly upset or angry at somthing. I thought nothing of this at first, but then I overheard from the nurses nearby about someone dying. Suddenly, I hear this scream, but this scream was no ordinay scream. This scream sounded like the most distressed scream, mixed with anger and sadness. He was also beginning to make a scene, everyone was looking. I tried connecting the dots between his scream and the news about death. It turns out I was right. I later found out that his mother died, by what is still a mystery to me, but I know this: she had high blood pressure and diabetes. I also saw the dead body. Her eye was half closed and she seemed to be staring at me, I thought she was sleeping. I was about to say hello. She was dead, and this sight of death reminded me that humans are capable of many things, but one thing is certain. Death. Time is precious, though would any of it matter in the end? Enjoy the day.

6th Post

I arrive at my place of volunteering, the Emergency Room, expecting to do the same thing I do every day. Today was different. I enter the emergency room to find four more volunteers. We were then assigned a lot of paperwork, but with that amount of people it went by relatively quickly. After that we had time to spare so we started talking about things relative to our lives. Only one other volunteer was in high school and the rest were in college getting credit and putting stuff on their resumes. The conversation started with all of us involved, but soon the older volunteers started talking about college and us high school kids were forever cut off from the conversation. When we left for lunch we all went our separate ways, and in the end I was the only one remaining. I was about to leave when I met another patient on a bed in the crowded hallway who had a simple request: a juice cup. I had to find the person in charge of the patient because for all I know she could die from that juice. It took forever to find the nurse in charge of the patient and once I found him I asked if she could have it. He said yes and then I went to complete my task. This mission would be forever failed in my mind, for she left before I could give her the juice. It was a sad day.

5th Post

Another day at the Emergency Room of Mount Sinai Medical Center. I have been volunteering there for roughly 11 days straight eight hours daily to complete my 175 required hours for the internship before I leave the country. The schedule has become almost monotonous to me, except that on many occasions I am tasked with new and interesting ventures. Like today when I helped the Triage Nurse who helps bandage people up. It was a rather interesting experience because I had to do different errands for her, such as go with her to wheel patients who had walking problems and resupply her office. I was then introduced to this blood sugar testing machine where a drop of blood is put on a strip of paper which is then inserted into the device which would later give the results of the test. I volunteered myself for some blood sugar testing that day and I found out that my blood sugar was 136, which was not to low but kind of high, though not high enough to cause concern. This information was interesting to me because before that event I did not know that there was a machine that automatically gave one's blood sugar score and that I did not know my blood sugar level.

4th Post

A few days ago, as I entered the Emergency Room and expected to do the routine look around and possibly shadow someone, but this day was different. The main technician who restocks everything in the emergency room lost her other techs, which meant that she had to do their jobs too. She saw me and dragged me into service, my mission: restock the supply trays. The supply trays were these trays that doctors and nurses use for patient care. The trays carry standard equipment when dealing with patients. Some items observed were vials with colors such as red, green, blue and yellow, tourniquets, band aids, multiple syringes and band-aids. This task may seem daunting at first, but after a brief introduction of the items that needed to be resupplied and their locations, it was like a sorting game that can be played on the Internet. After that task was complete I was asked to make roughly 250 copies of those discharge folders. That took a majority of my day. When I went to make copies, I noticed that I knew a lot of codes for rooms that needed them. I had almost as much access as most of the people who worked at the emergency room.

3rd Post

It is now the third week of my internship at Mount Sinai. My knowledge of the hospital areas has increased with each passing day. For example, before when lost patrons saw me in the winding hallways and asked me where the elevators were, I just shrugged and said "I don't know I'm just a volunteer". Now when I wander the vast hallway systems of Mount Sinai and see lost patients or their visitors and they ask me "Where is ?" I say, "Oh, its over there down the hallway make a left, make a right go up then three lefts". The emergency room is also more interesting than before, ever since I learned most areas of the room. I see more patients with more and more interesting ailments, such as jellyfish stings, and cardiac arrests. Then I recognize the patients with the regular emergencies, such as falling, or generalized weakness. At one point I saw a person sitting down on a chair in the main hallway, getting his hand stitched up like a torn teddy bear. It looked quite painful. I also saw how systematic and organized the people of the emergency room work. They each do a job that contributes to a bigger picture.

The second week

In week two of my internship I was beginning to get the schedule of the day. I wake up at 5 a.m., travel there via my mother who works there (the ride usually takes around 30 minutes, depending on traffic), take a nap for roughly an hour, until the volunteer office opens, then, finally at 8 a.m. I begin my internship. I was again tasked with copying papers and putting them in folders, but my mentor decided to switch things up a little bit by asking me to go the the main kitchen and get juices and possibly food trays for the patients. The way there was very confusing, let me tell you, the hospital is vast and confusing, with similar hallways, many exits, and secret pathways only accessable by staff or the cleaning crew. After I got the juices I saw more patients being wheeled in, most of them were old people with either a heart condition, falling accident, or some strange illness. After a couple of minutes, things really started getting interesting. The main doctor in charge saw me and told me to come with him so I could shadow his work. I met him at "The Fishbowl" which was the office room for all the doctors in the emergency room, and he briefed me on the patient's status. After that we went to the actual patient, who was an elderly woman with what appeared to be scratch marks and stab wounds. I would later discover that a cat viciously attacked her. The doctor started with a 'how are you doing?' and 'whats wrong?'. She was then asked to say at the hospital overnight so that they could analyze the wounds better. After this I went back to the Fishbowl and I learned from the doctor that cat bites are more likely to cause infection than dog bites because their teeth are like needles. I found the whole ordeal quite interesting.