Work at the Hospital

I just finished up my third day of work at the hospital. They have definitely been full days, starting at 8:30AM and usually ending around 6:30PM! This week I'm spending the majority of my time in the pulmonary department, specifically in the tobacco section.

The first two days I shadowed nurses who helped patients who had decided they wanted to or needed to stop smoking. Some ambulatory patients came in for consultations, and for others we went to visit them in their rooms. We saw patient in maternity, re-animation (post hear attack type area), and rheumatology). I spent some time getting to know how the hospital is set up, as well as seeing parts of the medical school. Tuesday I again spent time in the morning at the tobacco into, and in the afternoon I met with the English professor at the med school. I'm going to be speaking at two of her classes in the next few weeks. These two classes are for hospital employees who want to improve their English.  They've asked that I talk to them about how our election system works, how are university system is set up, and also a bit about health care/hospitals in the US.

Today, I got to observe a different part of the pulmonary department where they measure lung capacity etc... I then went up a floor and watches three bronchial fibroscopies, where doctors place a tube with a camera on the end into people's lungs. It was super interesting and all three were for various reasons.  One they had to clear mucus from the patient's lungs, and the others they took tissue samples.  In the afternoon I went to the optometry area of the hospital. I observed multiple consultations and also saw them perform lots of tests ( I don't remember their names). In any case, I will be back in optometry two weeks from now.

This afternoon I took the tram home, a little train/public transportation that goes from the hospital to within a few blocks from the apartment.  I get to go to Paris this weekend for my three day weekend.  I'm very much looking forward to my little trip! I will post some pictures of Reims soon.