November Blog

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November was a wild month. The cardiovascular unit was a difficult but extremely high-yield module. So many drugs that influence the heart and blood pressure have drug interactions and contraindications. Considering how many people are on these drugs (or will be eventually, considering how common cardiovascular disease is) it was very worthwhile to go in depth on the subject.

The renal-pulmonary module was more straightforward which I appreciated. I was surprised at how much diuretics are used in the treatment of high-blood pressure though, and the sheer number of drugs you need to manage hypertension as it progresses.

In terms of volunteering I did two shifts at Touro hospital. The first one was remarkably busy with us running around and restocking carts constantly. The second shift was on Thanksgiving and we had four patients in the three hours I was there. There was a free Thanksgiving dinner for anyone who went into the cafeteria and a potluck going on in the employee lounge so that was fun.

Recently I started going and volunteering at Grace at the Greenlight. It's about a mile away from the school so it's easily walkable and there's no need for any kind of training or orientation. Every morning starting at 6:30 we start handing out breakfast to people who are experiencing food insecurity and it's all done by 7:45.

Hopefully after the winter break I can continue to diversify my volunteering and learn more about the research opportunities at Tulane.

Total volunteer hours: 14

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