Febuary Blog Post

 Monthly Hours: 9, Cumulative Hours: 18

This month, I continued my position at Manning Family Children’s Hospital. I finally feel like I’ve settled into my role and responsibilities. This past Sunday, it was especially meaningful to integrate some of the knowledge I’ve learned in class while observing what was happening on the floor.

I answered a call from the lab stating that one of the patients’ troponin levels was elevated. I quickly went to find the nurse in charge of that room and expected her to rush in and administer one of the medications we’ve discussed in class for heart failure, maybe an ACE inhibitor, a beta blocker, or something along those lines. Instead, she calmly thanked me for letting her know and didn’t immediately take action.

Later, I learned that the baby in that room had significantly higher troponin levels a few hours earlier. Although the levels were still elevated, they were trending down. She eventually spoke with the physician about the next steps, but it challenged my assumption that situations like this always require immediate intervention. I’ve often associated elevated cardiac markers especially triponin with urgency and rapid pharmacologic management, making sure no time is wasted. But what I’m starting to understand is how important context is. A single lab value isn't the whole story. The trajectory, the patient’s recent course, and the broader clinical picture are just as important as a new critical datapoint. It also reinforced how essential it is to understand pharmacodynamics: the half-life of a medication, its onset of action, and how delivery methods like syringe pumps affect drug delivery and timing. 

While my role as a volunteer may not feel as directly impactful as some of my other experiences, it’s been really rewarding to start making these small connections between what I learn in class and what I see in real clinical settings.