Racquel Reese
Nishanth Khanna
Bahar Zarrabi
Racquel Reese
Email address: rreese@umd.edu
Affiliiation (CPS or other Program, Major): CPS Earth, Life, and Time, Neurobiology and Physiology
Title of Project: Exploring the Ever-Changing Field of Dentistry
Decscription of Project: For her ELT practicum, Racquel decided to shadow a dentist, Dr. Ann Zinger, at Enchanted Forest Family Dentistry. She also got the opportunity to shadow hygenists. She was able to interact with patients. Racquel was able to observe procedures such as bonding, root canals, filling activities, and attaching veneers during her time at the office. She became familiar with dental equipment and terminology.
What were the main benefits you received from doing the project?: She was able to see what life is like in the field of dentistry. This enabled her to have a first hand experience to see what she's getting into since she would like to persue a career in dentistry. She was able to record the rate of decay of patients' teeth. Racquel was able to witness a variety of dental procedures.
What were the main pitfalls or obstacles during the development and/or undertaking of the project?: Racquel felt like she was always in the way in the small office. What she saw became repetitive after a while. She learned about the negative sides of working in a dentist's office. She found that the hygenists and dentists were often complaining of back pain and hand cramps from working on patients.
Nishanth Khanna
Email address: nkhanna@umd.edu
Affiliiation (CPS or other Program, Major): CPS Earth, Life, and Time, Neurobiology and Physiology
Title of Project: Interning in the Operating Room at Sacred Heart Memorial Hospital
Decscription of Project: Nishanth interned at Sacred Heart Hospital under Patti Wright where he was permitted to observe surgery and interact with patients. He was able to watch carpal tunnel surgery as well as the removal of an ulcer. When he wasn't in the watching surgery he would bring patients into and out of the operating room. After surgery he would help in filling solutions and mopping blood off the floor.
What were the main benefits you received from doing the project?: The main benefits of this surgery were that he became accustomed to watching surgery first hand. He was able to see a day in the life of a surgeon and what he saw confirmed his aspirations to pursue this as a career. Nishanth originally thought that he would be squeemish when seeing these operations. As it turned out, his fear of being squeemish was overcome and he found the operations to be very interesting.
What were the main pitfalls or obstacles during the development and/or undertaking of the project?: It was not much fun cleaning the blood off the floor after the surgeries and mopping up bits of bone. Also, there were slow days sometimes when there were no scheduled surgeries so the day was spent moving patients around. These down days were not as exciting as those days when he was able to witness an operation.
Bahar Zarrabi
Email address: address
Affiliiation (CPS or other Program, Major): CPS Life Sciences, Neurobiology and Physiology
Title of Project: Medical Assistant
Decscription of Project: Bahar worked as a medical assistant at Dr.Harding, a general practitioner's office. She got special training before she could work. As a medical assistant, Bahar was able to give shots to patients and take blood. She cleaned ears using either a syringe or a special type of gun-like tool that squirts out water in a steady flow. One time she even spent 45 minutes getting the earwax out of a patient. Bahar also took patient height and weight when they came in. She got to help with a special case in which a baby was born with a 6th finger and it had to be removed. When there was down time she did the filing and answered the phone.
What were the main benefits you received from doing the project?: From working as a medical assistant Bahar leaned a lot. She learned how to give shots and how to insert the needle to take blood. From this opportunity she wound up with a job which she still has today. She works at the office two times a week and gets paid. Also, from this experience Bahar made the decision that she does not want to be a doctor and instead she would like to go into pediatric dentistry.
What were the main pitfalls or obstacles during the development and/or undertaking of the project?: She worried about hurting the patients when giving shots and taking blood. She had to get over the initial fear because it was nerve wrecking to have a patient put his or her trust in that she wouldn't mess up.