Perfusion Notes: [4]

A STUDENT DIARY

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Introduction to My Program…

I have moved to my new location and was lucky enough to get along with another candidate at the interview process that also got in to the program.  So we moved in and started exploring our new surrounding about a week before school started and there hasn’t been much moving anxiety.

This was my first week of the program.  I have to say I was very impressed with what I am told my program will be.  This was an orientation week and didn’t get into the OR or have any lectures.  We mainly just did the normal paperwork, going over program set up, obtained ID’s, pagers and whatnot.

We did however already attend an in-service for the Heartmate II and will have another in-service this next week for another piece of equipment.  I know that some programs do not have the chances for these experiences and I feel that they will prepare us for the actual profession.

The main thing that I like about this program is the feeling that I am treated like a staff member.  While I am not expected to have the competency level of a CCP, LCP; I am expected to take call, go above and beyond and be involved in bettering the program.  The opportunities that my program has are incredible with the ability of interacting with CT residents and cardiac anesthesia residents on a regular basis.

We have the chance to lecture both residents as well as be lectured by both groups of residents.  I think this will be a great opportunity to educate ourselves above the normal expectations.  The resources of knowledge that our director has obtained are just amazing and limitless.  At the same time our director is still making improvements every day and trying to obtain even more resources each day.

The other big thing that I like about the program is our director wants us to run it as much as possible.  He also expects us to progress at a rapid rate and become self-reliant on ourselves quickly.  He has designed the program for the students to be able to lecture the residents, create our own call schedule, complete as many cases as we want (overall goal being 150 MINIMUM), work on our website, better the interview process and the list goes on and on.

I like how we are expected to start doing all this stuff as soon as we got here as well.  He is planning on graduating leaders and not followers.

Since I was a perfusion assistant for so long, I am really excited to finally be working on the next step of becoming a perfusionist and learning the ins and outs of the profession.  I am pretty pumped up about my program and about finally getting to start my education and training.

I will write another entry in a   couple after I have been in the OR and have a few lectures under my belt.  Also if anyone has questions or wants to know more about certain aspects of what I discuss please comment on the entry and I will do my best to answer them.

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