Peiton J

March has felt like an extremely long month. I went from studying in my apartment for the NBME to being back at home with my family. This pandemic has changed all of our lives. Trying focus on this program has proven to be extremely challenging. My time in New Orleans allowed me to regain the confidence I lost during my senior year of undergrad. This program gave me time to believe in myself again. I owe so much to this chapter in my life. I am grateful to be in a space where I can learn about the virus and the evolving treatment strategies.  Our environmental pharmacology class lecture over the virus helped dispel some of the rumors floating around. I then took this information back to my family. The virus hasn’t personally affected anyone I know. I think for a lot of people this won't feel real until someone they know becomes ill. What’s most concerning for me is that life as we know it won't ever be the same again. This will change the landscape of how medicine is practice

This month has flown by. Honestly it makes me worried that the rest of this program is going to zoom by as well. I watched a web series that focused on the many benefits of eating a plant based diet. So many of the speakers focused on the cardiovascular diseases and how eating a plant based diet can reverse heart disease. When we had a lecture about the harmful effect of global warming I brought up the fact eating livestock contributes to more global warming than all forms of transportation. It put in perspective how I can make a change just be    reducing the amount of meat I eat. This month for community service, Michaela and I made sack lunches and passed them out to the homeless that stay in the park right near campus. This block has focused on psychological diseases. We discussed how schizophrenia is so debilitating and expensive to treat it often leads to homelessness. No one deserves to be out on the street because they do not have access to proper treatment. It’s small but it

    This first month flew by. Overall, I have enjoyed how this semester is structured over the last semester. I thought adding the electives would cause me to be more stressed out but the content we are learning is really interesting. Specifically, I really enjoy our endocrine elective with Dr. Lindsey. Stress is something I deal with often. I’m a worrier so having a class we’re I can conceptualize the impact stress can have on my body in the long run is really helpful. I also really enjoyed the lecture on pharmacogenomics. Every time we take a test, the toxicity of first line drugs is emphasized. Clearly, it’s important to make sure your patients are aware of the potential side effects of their medications but I never thought about how some patients are at higher risk of these toxicities because of their genetic makeup. Medicine should be individualized. No one's genome is the same so no one's medical care should be the same. Switching gears, I have been thinking about

For this month’s service, I completed another sack lunch give away to the homeless here in the city. The last time I went, I noticed how many people I wasn’t able to give food to and wanted to do more. When picking service, I look for an activity that puts me in direct contact with the population I seek to serve. This time I conducted the sack lunch give away by myself. Although it was slightly more difficult to accomplish, the relief of the people who did receive a sack lunch made it all worth it. I have some left-over materials that I will be passing out tomorrow before the test. Feeding the homeless is a service activity I do with my mother back at home in Nashville. The homeless population is not as bad as it is here. So, it’s important to me to carry on that tradition and make an impact in this community while I am attending the program. Hours Completed in December: 4.5    Total Hours: 12  

November’s service consisted of making sack lunches for the homeless around Tulane’s downtown campus. When I moved here I noticed the large population of homeless that live in the park near the library and under the bridge. I decided it would be a good idea to just provide a meal and take one less worry away from them. Hanaiah and Michaela helped me prepare the lunches and pass them out around campus. It was beyond rewarding to help the people I pass everyday. We plan on completing another lunch give away this month before exams are done. We are also thinking about passing out winter essentials such as gloves and hats. Hours: 4      Total Hours: 7.5

This month has been slightly more challenging than the last. I had such an intense focus about myself the first two blocks. I’m not sure if the third block's material was more difficult or what. I for sure feel slightly knocked off balance. The program overall has been great. I’ve felt many times since moving to New Orleans that I made the right decision to come here. So even though, I feel a little out of whack right now, I’m sure I’ll be fine. The current cardiovascular block has definitely given me a run for the money. The study methods I previously used seem not to be as fruitful. I’m having trouble commuting the various drugs to memory.   When we did the CBL and the simulation, concepts started to click. Moving forward I need to think of myself in a clinical setting when studying these drugs. I’m hoping that by visualizing a patient that’s reliant on me to know what medications to give them will help make these drugs more significant. The simulation exercise was by far the b