Senior Project Update

(1) What are you currently doing in your independent component? 
I have turned in the application to become a California Legislative Ambassador

(2)  An article titled "tips for friends and coping with cancer" really helped me with the other side of coping with cancer. Because of it I would really like to go and find a support group that doesn't deal with cancer patients themselves but with the people who are "indirect cancer survivors." I feel that there is a whole world that is entirely unexposed, the way a direct cancer survivors world is exposed. 

(3) Provide evidence from your independent component or the piece of research as something you recently did.  For example, a photo of something you working on for your independent component or your notes from the video you watched. 

5b Science Fair proposal

1. Breast Cancer.
2. As women get older the likelihood that they will develop breast cancer is going to increase greatly. There are more reported cases of breast cancer in older women and more reported deaths.
3. If a woman ages, then the likelihood that she will get breast cancer will increase..
4. I will preform this experiment by finding a study from multiple years of the ages in which women are diagnosed with breast cancer and using them as my data. I also plan to go to my own local breast cancer support group and finding out the age of the diagnosis of the women who attend there and at what stage their breast cancer was found.
5. Social Science?

Blog 9

1. What is the best way to cope with cancer?
2. I am not going to revise my EQ at this time.
3. Support groups, paying attention to the bodies physical needs, empowering yourself with education, and group therapy.

Blog 8

10 Minute Plan

Independent Component 1 Approval

1. For my Independent Component I plan to become a California Legislative Ambassador in the fight against cancer.
2. Before I can become an ambassador I have to go through training and take many courses learning about what my actions will be. I plan to put this effort toward my 30 hours for the Independent component. After this is done, I will be a volunteer at local Relay for life events held every year, and make personal visits to my local legislative office. All of which will add up for 30 hours.
3. Many cancer patients like to become involved in activities such as this, my EQ asks about how to cope with cancer. By becoming so involved and helping to change the future for others I hope to discover that many cancer patients feel a sense of gratitude and like they have also helped themselves.

Blog 6: Second Interview

1. How many years have you been working with oncology patients?
2. What was it that even began your interest in nursing?
3. Are there ways that you feel you help these types of patients, besides being a heath care provider? If so what are they?
4. In the previous interview you stated that you also help with work done at a support group the hospital runs, what made you decide to work there as well?
5. Was there a specific event in your carer that led you to read psycho social books?
6. What way have you found to be most effective when helping these patients deal with the difficulties of having cancer?
7. Is there anything more that you wish you could do for your patients? If so what, and why?
8. I know that even though the area of the hospital that specializes in oncology is very small, patients are always different age, gender, and race. Does the care for each type patient vary? And if so, how does it?

Working EQ

The Pentagon:

1. One positive thing that's happened as a result of what I have completed so far is the fact that I feel through my topic I am really helping people. One thing I really enjoy doing is helping people and I feel as though I am. I also feel as though I am studying a field that I could later on in life choose to work in.
2. My interview has really helped me understand Oncology from a physicians point of view. The nurse that I interviewed told me a lot about her own experiences and the things that she had to learn on her own when dealing with these patients. 
3. So far whenever I meet anyone new (since nurses schedules are always changing) I just introduce myself and explain my project so that they can help me in anyway possible. Another thing that helps is when I do my research I look for pages that will explain the medical terms I cannot understand. Or I look them up for a better understanding. 
4. While being at the hospital is a great experience, so far the tasks I've been given haven't really helped me to better understand my topic.
5. 
   
• I have a lot of questions for the patients. I would really like to have the chance to talk to some of them and ask them if how they are feeling or what they are going through is accurately portrayed in my research. I'd also like to be able to ask the doctors if they go through the same emotions that the nurses do. To me this answer should be different because doctors don't seem to have an as hands on or close relationship with their patients the way the nurses do. 
• Even though for the last few years I have gone to the Relay For Life in Kern County, I would like to become more involved in activities such as that through my project. I also hope do determine if the medical field is a place that could hold a future career for me.
• I would really like to talk to one of the doctors at San Antonio Hospital, just to gain the perspective of a doctor and what it is like for them. I would really like to know how what they do effect them personally. Or if it simply doesn't anymore. I would also like to talk to the patients, and hopefully will be able to soon, for their perspective as well.

Problem Statement

1. Oncology
2. After people hear that they are diagnosed with cancer they automatically assume that they are going to die. As a result many people join support groups to help them through these hard times. However, after people survive cancer, many find a hard time transitioning to their normal lives they lead before the diagnosis. One problem could be that support groups aren't accomplishing there goals. With the information I find, I can take it and use it in support groups and see how to improve them.
3. When people first begin to work with oncology patients, they are told how to deal with the treatment and how to help the patients physically get better. But, no one tells them about the psychological aspects and the other part of the healing process that they will have to deal with. I feel that the nurses and other medical staff need to be more informed. With this information, it can be given to current nurses in order to help them deal with the aspects of their job. If I could find a way I'd like to work with someone who could help me write something such as a paper to be used at local nursing schools.

Interview Preparation.

1. I plan on interviewing Livia Vargas. Upon my arrival in the Oncology department she seemed the friendliest and most willing to help me. She was very intrigued by the idea that I was working on a project with Oncology as it's topic. Not only does she have a great amount of experience with the Oncology patients, but she also is the Oncology navigator on the floor.
2. The additional questions that I plan to ask Livia are

• Is there anything that you particularly dislike about working with these patients, if there is can you please explain why?
• Can you tell me about the types of patients that you wanted to work with once you began to study nursing?
• If given the option, would you transfer to another department? Why or why not?
• I know that working with cancer patients can be a very emotional task, can you tell me about a time you became emotional about a patient? Was this difficult for you?

Oncology in pediatrics.

A) My topic is Oncology in pediatrics. Originally when I was choosing my topic I had chosen nursing, not in any department in particular but just nursing in general. After going to my orientation and choosing a department to work in, I found I had interest in cancer, but not just anyone with cancer. I have had many past experiences with people who have fought cancer, however one experience stuck with me forever. When I was 10 my family and I became very close friends with a family my mom met at her job at the hospital. The daughter was my age and had tumors in her torso area. For months my family was there with them as she went through the treatment and tried to fight it off. The end result stuck with me for the rest of my life. It was from those memories that I decided I would like to narrow my topic down to cancer in pediatrics.
B)

• Effective Ipoly Citizen: I plan on becoming a much more responsible being through this project and overall to make sure that I am on top of things this year. I also plan to show that Ipoly has given me the proper skills to accomplish the tasks that will be given to me in other aspects of this project outside of being at school. 
• Effective Communicator: While spending time at the hospital I understand that I will be dealing with many sick people and that everyone I come in contact with will be at a different stress and emotional level. Through this I feel that I will learn how to handle "mood swings" better without feeling offended and be able to maintain my professionalism. 
• Effective Learner: I plan on making it my responsibility to do the research to further define cancer and the different types/forms it comes it. I understand that the nurses at San Antonio Hospital while there to assist me if needed, I am ultimately there to assist them, and I must teach myself how to properly do so. I also feel that overtime I will learn how to make the patients that I come into contact with feel more comfortable with me.
• Effective User of Technology: Throughout the course of my senior project, I plan to use all the technology I have available to me. In the medical field there are many different terms and medicines that I will need to define for my own reference and I plan on using technology to it's greatest extent to do so.

Blog 1: Summer Mentorship Componet

Literal (Know):

• 10 Hours log plus contact Info.

Literal (Need to Know):

• What can you do as a nurse to take care of the patients who do not want to work with you?
• Does working so closely with people who may or may not make it effect you emotionally? Or do you try to not let it get to you?
• How do you handle it when it does effect you?
• How many years of school does it take to become a nurse?
• How many years does it take to become a doctor?

Interpretative:

• After this experience in the hospital, I have gained the knowledge that working so closely with those who are sick, is not always easy. Sometimes no matter what gets done to help them, it just isn't enough. I've learned that that is something I am going to have to prepare myself for better when I transfer to the Oncology department. I also know that it is okay to let it get to you every now and then, but it is not okay to let it get the best of you and effect your work. 

Applied:

• Being in the hospital showed me that I really do enjoy helping people there. At first I didn't really want to be there and was thinking of other topics I might switch to. But, now after these few days, I highly doubt that I am. Many people come into the hospital day in and day out whether it is good or bad, I noticed they all have one thing in common, nerves. They could be there to witness the birth of their first grandchild, or to say goodbye to someone they love, they all still have the same amount of nerves. But when one person walks with them to where they are going, or just asks how they are doing through everything, you can see a change in them. Seeing that slight change by doing so little, really helped me enjoy this topic.