LPM: A Student’s Perspective- Seminars and Symposiums
“Perfusion as a discipline is still very much in need of empirical evidence in order to develop best practices.”
Editor’s Note:
This is a continuation of a new series with a guest blogger who is currently enrolled in a perfusion program. I am impressed that as a perfusion student she has the initiative to share her thoughts and impressions with us regarding the process of learning the art of perfusion technology from her own unique perspective:
“I am a first year perfusion student.I follow your facebook and website to stay updated on perfusion news from all around the world, and I love it. I saw the posting about needing bloggers and wanted to find out if you were interested in a student blogger. Either way, thank you for the work put into the website, it was valuable as I prepared to apply for my program as well as throughout it.
Thank you.”
Kora
The name of the series will be as above- LPM: A Student’s Perspective. There is a slight play on the acronym as the L stands for Learning as opposed to a metric for Q.
As we all know- regardless of experience level- we all learn minute by minute.
Enjoy 🙂
Frank
Click here to view the entire LPM series
Authored by: Kora
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A Student’s Perspective: Seminars and Symposiums
As a student, I’ve been lucky enough to attend three conventions for perfusion in just one year alone. On top of that, my class have been given other opportunities to listen and learn at symposiums taking place at other nearby hospitals. I find this valuable, as much of perfusion involves not just understanding didactic work or clinical work, but how to “talk” perfusion within the community. As a graduate student, it also helps to look at how research is conducted at hospitals, and to look towards that as a model for my own graduate research project which is in the works.
While some of the research proposed may be much more involved and complex than anything we’ve encountered thus far in our learning, it is still valuable. In order to move forward, we need to see what we are working towards. Perfusion as a discipline is still very much in need of empirical evidence in order to develop best practices. With this in mind, as students it is interesting to see the new work being done that may not yet be standard practice but what we may be moving towards in the future. It also gives students a way to be inspired to ask their own questions and formulate ideas for projects (I know mine came from watching a demonstration).
Another benefit to spending the time at a symposium or seminar for perfusion, is to get to listen to the questions asked. As students it can be hard to speak up at a conference for fear of asking something that the rest of the community already knows; but smaller audiences allow for more leniency. Listening to questions from other experienced perfusionists is important. I found that while some talks were very complicated, as soon as the floor was opened up for discussion, the questions asked by those in the audience allowed it to be understood more clearly.
Attending events for our profession is important and I’m glad that as a student I’ve been given the opportunity to feel like part of the perfusion community. That involves getting the chance to visit other hospitals, learn from their perfusionists and physicians, and perhaps ask my own questions.
Kora
