Blog 21 - Interview 4 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  
1. The most interesting thing learned that although people co-publish medical articles, they can still have differing views. My interviewee 4 co-published several articles with my interviewee 3. To spot any differences in their answers, I asked them similar questions. I was really surprised when they answered oppositely on several things foundational to my topic. I asked my interviewee how he would rank my three answers, which will definitely help me to pick my best one. 
2. How will what I learned affect my final lesson?
1. His answers will help me to be more confident in what I have found throughout the year. It will also help me be confident in what I chose as my best answer because my third interviewee did not agree with me. 

*This interview was conducted through email.

Blog 20 - Interview Four Prep

What my interviewee probably looks like on the other end of the line.

1. Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
1. I am going to interview Dr. Jesse Pines. He is an Emergency Medical Physician at George Washington University Medical School.
2. Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.
1. What first interested you in the topic of overcrowding?
2. What do you believe are the greatest factors causing overcrowding?
3. Which do you believe plays a bigger role, patient misuse of the ED or hospital crowding?
4. Who or what do you believe has the most influence over hospital policies regarding overcrowding?
5. What do you think will have to change in order for this problem to improve?
6. How do you feel about legislation to enforce solutions to this problem? Do think it may need to get to this point?
1. If so, what kind of legislation?
2. Do you think that having the 4-hour rule compromises safety too much?
7. Do you think that mandating health insurance will affect ED visits?
8. Should access to urgent care also be lumped with primary care access?
9. Are there any plans you have put into action to improve overcrowding where you work?
1. Yes: What were they? How easily were they adopted? What effects did they have?
2. No: Why not?
10. If you had to pick just one answer to the question, “What is the best way to minimize Emergency Department overcrowding?”, what would it be?
11. How would you rank the options: gatekeeping/nurse hotlines, improving primary care access, and inpatient hallway boarding?
12. Do you think there is a problem with referring people to lower levels of care(UC, PC) after triaging?
1. Is it correct to assume that anything could be an "emergency medical condition" because of EMTALA?
13. Explain what UCR medical school is doing for several students… How effective do you think this would be?
14. Are there any other significant issues facing emergency departments nationwide?
15. What do you think the Emergency Department will look like in terms of patient volume, providing locations, and overcrowding in 5 years? 10 years?
16. Do you have any articles or journals you suggest I check out?
17. Any last pieces of advice for someone looking to go to medical school down the road?

Blog 17 - Interview 3 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  
1. I learned a lot from this interview, probably the most out of all my interviews thus far. I think the most important thing I learned was that my interviewee believes that making primary care more available would be the most important step in reducing Emergency Department overcrowding. I also learned about a method of minimizing the effects of crowding which could be an answer. 
2. How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?
1. I believe I am a little more comfortable now than I was when I did my very first interview. My questions for this interview definitely connected more and actually flowed well into each other. What I think worked for this interview is that I didn't use my questions in the exact order that I had written them. I knew most of them by memory so when a topic I had written a question about came up I knew to jump to it instead of going down the list like a checklist. 
3. Link to interview transcription
 

Blog 14 - Third Interview Preparation

What is the best way to minimize Emergency Department overcrowding?

1. Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
1. I plan to interview my mentor's boss, the director of the ED. He has a similar experience as my mentor and has probably more of a hand in the structuring of the department. I have contacted my mentor to get in touch with his boss, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet.
2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 
1. I haven't scheduled one yet.
3. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.
1. Do you, or anyone you know, subscribe to any journals that deal with hospital/emergency department management?
4. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).
1. Who do you believe has the most influence over hospital policies about overcrowding?
5. Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.
1. How do you think overcrowding has affected this department?
2. What do you think is the biggest issue facing emergency departments state/nationwide?

The interview transcript  is due to turnitin.com with the 5-minute audio excerpt and entry to the blog on Friday, February 19th. In addition, you need to turn in the verification sheet to your house teacher

Blog 10 - Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentorship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)
1. I am shadowing my mentor while he is working. I basically just follow him as he sees patients, reads results, fills out paperwork, and whatever other tasks he completes. Because I am just a shadow I am unable to really do anything but watch. Sometimes when my mentor has a break he will explain things on the X-Rays and CTs or about conditions that people come in with. Basically everyone who works there could be considered an expert in their narrow field(eg. emergency nursing). I am grateful to be shadowing a doctor though because they are probably the most knowledgeable people in the department.  
2. How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  
1. My mentor is my mom's friend's friend's friend. I didn't have a lot of trouble getting him to help me because I explained why I was interested in his profession and my own health conditions. Also, he's a really nice person:). I did have problems being able to actually start mentorship though because the hospital was being bought by another company so my mentor had a hard time getting approval. 
3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentorship/with this person?
1. I am much more comfortable with my mentor now than I was when I first started mentorship. He's very relaxed at work which put me more at ease. I am still pretty formal when I address him though(calling him Dr. Rodriguez instead of just Rodriguez) because most people in the department are too. 
4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?
1. I think I was more prepared for this interview than the last one because I was able to create the questions. It helped that it was in a Starbucks, which is a pretty relaxed environment. I was also able to understand my mentor more in person than over the phone so I wasn't always asking "What did you say?". I think I could still improve on my transitions between questions and wrapping it up at the end. During the interview I was struggling to come up with transitions and I knew the ones I had didn't work very well because the topic change was kind of abrupt. I also didn't have any conclusion at all but I know it's good to have one. More practice interviewing people will definitely improve my skills. 

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

Residency programs, like this picture, are something I expect to hear about in this interview. 

1. Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert? 
1. My mentor is Dr. Miguel Rodriguez. He works at Downey PIH and another hospital in Santa Ana(he didn't tell me the name) in the Emergency Department as a Physician. He has worked as an emergency physician for 20 years. 
2. What five questions will you ask them about their background?
1. Where did you go to school for your undergraduate and graduate degree? How did you choose it? Do you feel like your schooling prepared you for your career?
2. When and why did you choose to specialize in emergency medicine?
3. What other fields were you looking to specialize in? Did you have any other career path options?
4. What has influenced your career choice the most?
5. Reflecting back on your education and career, is there anything you would change?

Blog 5 - Interview One Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?
1. The most important thing I learned from this interview is more about the significance of overcrowding. My interviewee thought it was a great idea to focus on overcrowding instead of communication because it affects both patients and doctors. He also gave me some reasons why he thought overcrowding is so prevalent.
2. For future interviews I would like to have more questions prepared. I felt like I had plenty, but during the interview my interviewee would go into a lot of detail on one question and end up answering questions I hadn't asked yet. It definitely threw me off because I felt like I wasn't asking enough questions, and the ones I did ask didn't flow together.
2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?
1. I didn't get any specific people that I could contact, but I see plenty of people at mentorship that my interviewee could help me contact if I need it. My interviewee just gave me general positions(EMT, paramedic) that I should talk to. 
3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?
1. My interviewee is qualified to help me because he is one of the most experienced doctors at the ER he works at(20+ years experience). He has a lot of inside information and experiences that can only come from working in the field for so long. He is also able to compare how the speciality of emergency medicine has changed over the years. 

Interview

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview? Why? 
1. I plan to interview my mentor. When I went for mentorship I wasn't able to talk to him very much because it was a really busy night at the hospital. I hope to get a little more foundational knowledge about his job. He also might be able to give me ideas of who to interview next. 
2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?  Ask open-ended questions.  What are open-ended questions? Click here!
1. You've worked in the ER for 20 years now. How has your enthusiasm for the job changed in that time?
2. What are some political or medical problems that you encounter frequently while on the job?
3. What is the most rewarding aspect of your job? 
4. How does ER overcrowding affect you? Do you have any solutions or do you see any root causes?
5. Do you know the insurance situation of your patients? Does this play a role in the treatment of the patient?