Throughout my high school years, I aspired for my future career to be in the medical field – any of the options I loved but specifically anesthesiology stuck out to me. The AnnieRuth Foundation played a pivotal role in helping this decision and even changed my view on whether this decision was the right choice for me. Near the end of my internship, I was taught by two amazing doctors, Dr. Greene and Dr. Jones, at Ascension St. Vincent’s Riverside. I was also able to be placed into Baptist Medical Center to observe their processes. These doctors provided many insights into the life of a medical professional, from the actual hospital to outpatient visits, including teaching me manners on how to talk to a patient.
Aside from simple bedside manners, I learned enough about hospitals and diagnoses that I nearly filled out in my notebook. I shadowed the doctors to see what to look for in a stethoscope and how to check for any abnormalities, like a murmur in the heart or the wheezing of a patient’s lungs. I was able to see different operations being performed in the operation room, like the dissection of a person’s stomach region to remove a hernia; I also saw various tools like the electrosurgical pencil that burns different parts so surgeons can perform an invasive surgery and I even saw the titanium staples used to keep the veins from spewing blood. All the doctors and nurses present even helped me out to learn critical steps and showed me what kind of scrubs were needed (the scrubs were also very cozy). At Baptist Medical Center, I got to see more complex surgeries and learned from research on the brain and the spine, from seizures to aneurysms.
Without Annie Ruth, I would have never truly seen a doctor’s life and work until I actually started working in that field. The Foundation has given me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I am glad that I didn’t miss. The opportunity enabled me to see what my future career and all its ups and downs entails. Had I not participated in this internship opportunity, I may have never given other careers like cardiology or surgery a shot; but now, with this new information, I may.