kaity2017genius-blog

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How I Plan on Improving the System

In last week’s blog post, I talked about the problems with how the posters are being utilized in the hospital. I have learned this from only 2 responses on my google survey, so later on today, I am going to Mt. Sinai Hospital to see if I can get any more responses in person. 

This week, I have done a lot of thinking about how to improve the posters system at the hospital. I decided that the posters need their special place at the front desk of each floor, so that they don’t get misplaced or lost anywhere. In the survey responses, I have learned that some nurses do not know that there are also posters in Korean, while another nurse commented that she had lost it after using it 5 times. So, I bought some desk file organizers from amazon.com. I will also supply the hospital with more posters, which is why I bought more laminating sheets on my trip to Staples last Thursday. Some nurses had not even known that I was supplying these posters. They had thought that it was a new thing the hospital was trying out. Even though my name is at the bottom of the posters, I decided I would have to label the file organizers with my name and the poster title: MedCAP. I will do this tonight when the file organizers arrive. I hope to visit Mount Sinai again tomorrow (Sunday) to establish this new system at the hospital. 

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Problem With the Surveys and the system

For the past week, I have been wondering why I haven’t been receiving any responses on my survey. In fact, I was getting a bit nervous, as I had the deliverable due date coming up too. My dad had come home one day to tell me that a couple nurses told him that they weren’t able to access the surveys because it asked for an email address. I thought I would have to create a new survey on survey monkey, and was very concerned about how I would communicate the new survey address/link to the nurses. Luckily, though, a friend showed me how to disable the email address function on the google survey. I regret a bit that I had not known this before, as I think I could have had more survey responses if I had not made the mistake. 

Just yesterday, I got 2 responses to my survey, both being from Mt. Sinai, most likely because it is easier for my dad to remind nurses there that the survey issue is fixed. I was very happy to hear that my posters are being used. I was actually surprised to hear that one of the nurses had used the Spanish poster 5 times. 

I encountered many problems though. On Saturday, I made an unexpected visit to the hospital with my dad after a tennis lesson, and learned that I need to create a better system for nurses to keep and use the posters. One of the responses said that after using the poster 5 times, she had lost it and didn’t know where to look for them. Some of my posters even ended up on the 7th floor (a floor I did not distribute to), so some responses asked for me to distribute more which I plan on doing after I buy more laminating sheets. One nurse said she wished there was a poster in Korean which there already was. Clearly, there is a problem with the publicizing of the posters and how they are being managed at the nurses’ stations. This issue is probably because nurses have different shifts and different nurses are at different floors on different days. The nurses I talk to on a Saturday or Sunday are not the nurses who will be at the hospital during other weekdays. So, for the time being, I requested that the front desk clerk who is always there, will watch out for my posters and keep them in an organized pile. I am thinking that maybe I could bring some plastic baskets or buckets with labels on them that say my name and “MedCAP Posters” on it to keep at the nurses’ stations. 

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In Mandarin

In my previous blog post, I have mentioned that when I distributed posters to nurses at Mount Sinai, many have asked if I had any in Mandarin. Apparently, Mount Sinai Hospital has been seeing a huge increase in the number of Chinese patients, and they often have to use the translator phone and services for them. If I received good feedback in my surveys, I was considering making some Mandarin posters for Mount Sinai especially. It doesn’t take that long to create about 20 posters either. It is only the language accuracy in medical terms that will take a long time. I also do not know any Chinese, so I would have to find good resources. However, I decided to get a head start on the Chinese Posters, as I was not receiving responses yet to my survey. 

https://docs.google.com/a/nvnet.org/document/d/1BsNF43Xh95CdzHmCuyGfdXPtQ53eb1NxfE7L05b-5LE/edit?usp=sharing

Above is a link to the progress I have made so far. I added the Pinyin - Simplified keyboard to my computer and learned that if you type the romanized word (by sound), the keyboard lets you choose a symbol that would make up the word you want to type. I went back to the Eastern Health website with the cue cards I had referenced for my first two poster and downloaded the Mandarin one. I then pulled up a website: http://www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/vocabulary/list/149/doctor.html  that provides lists of vocabulary terms under certain themes. I referenced the Medical and Greetings section the most. 

I was very lucky to have Mrs. Beesley speak to Sra. Rabelo who connected me through email with freshman Rahul, who is fluent in Mandarin. We were not able to meet up yet in her class, however, as I wanted to wait a bit and get my surveys up to date more, as that is my first priority for the next deliverable.

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Mount Sinai Hospital!

This weekend, I distributed 36 of my MedCAP posters to a couple floors in the East Wing of the Guggenheim building at Mt. Sinai Hospital. First, I spoke with a nurse and front desk clerk of the 10th floor designated to Intestinal Surgery. I distributed 10 posters there. Next, I went to 9East, the General Surgery Floor, where I also spoke with the front desk clerk. After explaining my project to her, I handed 10 posters to her, which she then immediately showed to the head nurse and another nurse who sat beside her. At 8East, the Medicine floor, I handed 6 posters to one nurse. And finally, 10 posters to two nurses at the Center wing of the same floor, designated to Orthopedic Surgery/Spine. 

I really enjoyed handing out my posters here, as explaining my project became easier. The comments all the nurses made at Mt. Sinai also made me more confident in my project. For instance, when I asked one nurse to fill out the google survey if she found the posters helpful or in need of improvement, she asked me when I had wanted the survey done by. This made me confident in that nurses would not disregard my posters and would take time out of their busy day to give some feedback. One nurse from 8Center had also commented how she was shocked that the hospital hadn’t made anything like my posters yet. She stated that the hospital should make my posters something official for every floor. 

At every floor I visited today, at least one nurse asked me if I had any posters in Mandarin or Cantonese. Apparently, Mt. Sinai Hospital has been getting a great number of Chinese patients that they often need translation services for. This gave me an idea that if I get good responses on my survey, I could create about 20 more posters in Mandarin for Mt. Sinai only. 

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Visit to Englewood Hospital

Friday, I visited Englewood Hospital to distribute my MedCAP posters. With my volunteer ID badge on and a folder filled with posters, I first followed my dad to 8Dean, the Pediatrics floor, where he had to speak with a patient or two. As I waited outside the patient’s room, I saw a Korean nurse walk out of the adjacent room. I took the opportunity to introduce myself and the project. She introduced herself (Jamie Lee) and told me that she is Korean, yet cannot fully speak or understand the language. Therefore, she retreats to the translator phone a lot when she has a Korean patient who she cannot communicate with. When I showed her my project, she seemed very excited and told me it was “very well-made”. She thanked me and I thanked her for her interest in trying it out. I also made sure to mention that if she enjoyed the posters or had any suggestions, there was a link to a quick survey at the bottom of the posters. I gave her 2 in each language to share with the small station on that floor. 

I then went to the mother/baby unit on 6Dean where no nurses know of my dad. I remember back when I used to volunteer, that the nurses on this floor were very kind to everyone, and when I introduced my project to one nurse, a few others came to take a look at my posters also. This made me very excited and even more proud of my posters. I handed out 6 posters for their station. 

Finally, I went to the 4th floor, or the Cardiac floor, where I met another Korean nurse. I learned she was fluent in Korean and often does not use the translator phone. I think it was a bit hard for her to relate to my project, as it took a while to explain to her why I made the posters in the first place and how they could benefit her. I also had to explain to her how she would use them, where she could put them, etc. I’m not sure if she would put them to good use, but I convinced her to take and share them with the rest of the nurses on the floor. She thanked me and I left the hospital with a good feeling. I wanted to stop by a couple more floors, but my dad had an appointment somewhere else after. 

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Planning to Distribute

As the posters are completed and ready to distribute, I started thinking about when I could go to both Mount Sinai and Englewood Hospitals over the spring break. 

I scheduled to follow my dad to Englewood Hospital the Friday before spring break ends, as he doesn’t work for the hospital yet has a patient to see there. As my family is busy for most of spring break, I could not schedule to visit Mount Sinai until the weekend before school starts.

At Englewood, I will follow my dad first to the surgery floor he needs to go to, where he will first introduce me to a couple nurses. I will introduce myself and briefly explain my project and how it could help them. I feel a bit nervous about proposing my posters to Englewood Hospital, because I already know the hospital focus on communication with their Spanish and Korean patients a lot. I’m afraid they might disregard my posters after receiving them, or reject the idea from the beginning. Therefore, I think it is a good idea to have my dad introduce me to the few nurses that he knows so that they would be somewhat nicer. I also will wear my volunteer ID badge when I go there. I’m planning to distribute about 6 posters (3 in each language) to each nurse to keep at her station/floor. I am hoping that nurses will delightedly accept my posters and put them to good use. 

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Where to send posters

I have decided to send my posters to both Englewood and Mount Sinai Hospitals. So, instead of sending all 100 of them to Englewood, which was the original plan, I will hand out 50 to Mount Sinai nurses, and 50 to Englewood nurses. 

I decided to do this because most of my research for gathering information to put on the posters came from nurses who worked at Mount Sinai, and they all sounded very enthusiastic and excited about my project. I think I would get better and more feedback from the nurses there. On the other hand, I remember volunteering at Englewood hospital last summer, where the nurses always seemed busy and never really preferred to talk with me. This may be because at Mount Sinai, I followed my father around, whereas at Englewood, I was a volunteer running errands. 

Last Tuesday, I followed my dad again to Englewood Hospital, as he was meeting one of his patients there. I wanted to see how busy the nurses there actually were and if they would show the same enthusiasm for my project as the nurses at Mt. Sinai had. I briefly spoke with 2 nurses, and I felt bad and hesitant to bother them during work. I decided to still give a shot with donating some poster to Englewood and am definitely handing them out to Mt. Sinai. 

As I chose to hand out these posters to a new hospital, I decided I would have to do more research on Mt. Sinai’s translation services, as I already researched Englewood for the project proposal. Mt. Sinai’s translation services looked bigger and more specific for patients’ needs. For example, they have different translation services for those who need it outside the US, while Englewood doesn’t. Mt. Sinai lists many phone numbers, emails, and times that the Patient Service Centers are open for different services, like Hearing and Visually impaired, or International Translating. Mt. Sinai’s translation services are definitely more complicated compared to Englewood’s as Englewood only has one phone number for their main translation departments of Korean and Spanish. 

http://www.englewoodhealth.org/centers-departments/korean-health-wellness#-for-patients-

http://www.mountsinai.org/locations/mount-sinai/support-services/translation

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Copies of Posters

This past week I completed my fourth deliverable, which was to get 100 copies of the Spanish and Korean posters copied and laminated. I took one day during the school week to draw and color the Spanish poster. In order to get the images to look as similar as possible with the ones on the Korean poster, I traced the images onto the poster. At the bottom of the posters I also added a brief statement and link that basically asks for feedback to a google survey I made that night. 

The next day, I stopped by at Staples with my copies of the posters to get copied. Before going, I took a picture of how much the copies would cost if I had ordered them online - just in case.

After we got the copies of the posters at Staples, the employee charged us $200, which is way different from the price if we were to pay online. My dad got into an argument with the employee who had said that he would charge us for the price online if it were cheaper. We told the employee that we could just print the copies in another supplies store, or do it at home. And in the end, we got the copies for the online price. We also ordered 100 sheets of laminating paper for legal sized paper from Amazon. When they arrived, I laminated all of them one by one.

Before handing these copies out to Englewood Hospital, I kept thinking about the great feedback and enthusiasm I received from nurses at Mount Sinai Hospital when I had visited them for research. Also, thinking about when I had volunteered at Englewood Hospital last summer, I noticed that the nurses seemed more laid back and friendly at Mount Sinai. I acknowledge that this may be because I visited with my dad, who is a working physician there. Anyway, I started thinking that I would receive more helpful and better feedback about my posters if I sent them to Mount Sinai. I decided I definitely want to hand my posters out to Mount Sinai Hospital. Currently, I am thinking about if I should hand my posters out to both Mount Sinai and Englewood, or maybe only Mount Sinai.

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Drawing the Korean Poster

After working on the format and translations of the Spanish poster last week, the next step for the completed third deliverable was to print out and create illustrations for the Korean to English poster. The goal of the illustrations in the poster is not only for them to be aesthetically pleasing but also to guide nurses and patients to the right questions and answers they want to quickly communicate. For instance, I added transitioning colors (green for good to red for painful) on the pain scale along with the faces that have the expressions a person might have if they were to rate their pain a specific number. I obtained the similar images for the pain scale online, as I searched up “Pain scale for Kids”. 

These posters were printed onto legal size paper, which is about three inches longer than printer copy paper. I think the size is just perfect for a poster like this, and I am happy that I was able to fit in all the information and the images that I had gathered. When I take the posters to the nearest Staples location to get the copies, I will ask for each to be copied front and back. 

The next step from here is to print the Spanish poster, print it, and draw the exact illustrations onto it. I am sure minor differences will not matter, but I will trace, if possible, and use the same colors, etc. I will have to get this step done quick so that I can get them to Staples quicker. I cannot expect how long it will take them to deliver the copies, which I will then have to laminate by hand.

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Working on Deliverable 3

My deliverable three are the completed Korean and Spanish Posters with translations. The copy of Korean Poster should be printed and should have illustrations drawn onto them, whereas the Spanish poster will be shown on the laptop. 

This past week, I have completed the Spanish poster part of deliverable, which was to get all the translations and to put it in the same format as the Korean poster, which I made some edits to since my visit to Mount Sinai Hospital. 

As I had said in last week’s post, I visited Sra. Rabelo and Sra. Mezzina during my lunch period and asked her for some help with translations that sounds awkward to me, or that I haven’t learned yet. I explained my genius project to the teachers and we had a good laugh and a funny conversation when I asked her to translate, “Have you passed gas?” for me. The teachers told me that they also never ask these kinds of questions, such as “have you had a bowel movement?”

In translating the rest of the Spanish poster, I used the Eastern Health cue cards that I so often reference in my blog posts : https://www.easternhealth.org.au/images/cue_cards/M16236_v1_634031248507263248.pdf

I especially used the first page that includes basic items that a patient might ask for in response to the question, “Is there anything you need?” 

I plan on meeting Sra. Rabelo one more time, as I would like her to review my Spanish poster once again after the new edits I have made. What I have so far is here: 

https://docs.google.com/a/nvnet.org/document/d/12qkEs8f3OzwgIfMSdjgv7_dgVNtFLFI39UjXWy5wfMQ/edit?usp=sharing

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changes in deliverable 2

This past week, my plans for the second deliverable were to shadow my dad and some of his nurses during rounds, where I would observe and record the routine conversations that take place with their patients. 

When I was working on my final project proposal, my dad had told me he had time for the week after winter break, which was the week of Feb. 28th to March 1st. Unfortunately, he was very busy that week with surgeries that there wasn’t a day that I could go follow. As a result, we instead, scheduled a time for me to follow him to work on Sunday March 5th, which is three days after the deliverable is due. 

I made changes to my deliverable chart in class and, in order to make progress on my project, rather than having a week wasted, I started my Spanish poster. 

On Sunday, I will ask questions, talk to nurses, and then, add new questions or change some of them. With the final list, I will change the format of the whole poster into a chart. My complete deliverable for March 5th is the Korean poster without the illustrations.

https://docs.google.com/a/nvnet.org/document/d/12qkEs8f3OzwgIfMSdjgv7_dgVNtFLFI39UjXWy5wfMQ/edit?usp=sharing

Above is a link to what I have on my Spanish poster so far. I basically used the same poster as the Korean one but instead of Korean, there are SPanish translations. On Friday during my lunch period, I spoke to both Sra. Rabelo and Sra. Mezzina about my posters. They both read over my translations and fixed my grammar mistakes and helped me with wording certain phrases that would be easier for fluent Spanish speakers to understand.

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The First Deliverable

     This past week I collected information from the cue cards and the study guide tests to formulate some questions for the Korean poster. The link to the working progress of the poster is: https://docs.google.com/a/nvnet.org/document/d/1qYnNsyV0NTPWiUADAYtVfUGv8z6nI5bRjb0AVyibW2s/edit?usp=sharing 

      On the nurse’s side of the poster, I added some questions and pictures similar to those on the Eastern Health cue cards. The questions I formulated were mostly yes or no questions that are organized into different part, pertaining to the distinct departments in the hospital. For instance, in the Lung and Heart section, I added questions, such as "Do you have chest pain?", and for the Intestines Department I added a question, such as "Did you urinate today?" I also added parts for greeting the patient and for the patient's general needs. For the back side of the poster, I added a scale similar to the one on Eastern Health’s cue cards that the patient can simply point to. As the nurse's questions are mostly yes or no, I also added the translations for Yes and No (with illustrations) on this side. For the patient's general needs, I added illustrations and simple words for some objects the patient may need (i.e. bed pan, hot drink, cold drink, etc.) While formulating these questions, I kept asking myself how the posters would be put into use in the hospital. How will nurses communicate with the patient by using the poster? How will the patient respond with the poster? etc. After I follow my dad to the hospital, I will add more phrases, questions, and the appropriate number of boxes to fit into one page.

      I have scheduled a date to follow my dad to Mount Sinai Hospital on Saturday, March 4th. It is an office day for my dad but he will be making rounds at the hospital after. Therefore, it will not be a busy day with surgeries for him. I will follow him around during his rounds and will also shadow some nurses that will not mind having me around. I realize this creates a problem with my completed Korean poster (without illustrations) that is due for the second deliverable, but the Saturday after this due date is the only day I can go follow my dad to his work, which is a crucial part to getting accurate information for my posters. I will talk to Mrs. Beesley about what I have to change about my second deliverable.

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What I’ve Learned from Completing the Study Guides for Certified Medical Interpreters in both Korean and Spanish

      This past week, I worked on completing my first deliverable for the 16th, which was to complete the two study guides (Korean and Spanish) for Certified Medical Interpreters. The reason I thought it was necessary to take these tests is because if I am contributing/distributing posters to nursing stations that are meant to improve accessible and quick translation services, the posters must contain precise and accurate information. During the research portion of this project, I found that certified medical interpreters studied from these two packets to prepare for their test. I decided I had to understand what kinds of medical terminology and translations skills the interpreters had that I would need to somewhat know myself for the posters. 

     Each study guide was the same except for the fact that one was in Korean and the other in Spanish. The information, questions, and exercises they contained, however, were the same. Each study guide contained a section for simple medical terminology translations, such as “nose” and “nurse”, followed by the next section which were a couple multiple choice questions based on regular medical knowledge. The next section was meant to be an oral exercise in which one reads the passage in Korean/Spanish then translates the passage in English (and vice versa). While taking this section, I found it harder to translate from English to Korean/Spanish, but found it easier to translate the foreign languages to English. I do not think I have to worry much, however, because the passages were translations for consultations with physicians, whereas my posters are focusing on brief and basic patient communication with nurses. At the end of each study guide was the answer key and how a certified translator would have translated each passage. I learned a lot from taking this study guide. For instance, I learned how to say burn in Spanish and “flu” and “pneumonia” in Korean. 

     I don’t think there is A LOT that I can put into my poster from what I’ve learned from this study guide, other than some body parts and questions, as this study guide was meant for certified interpreters who translate consultations with the doctors. The majority of my phrases and questions will come from following my dad and his nurses at Mt. Sinai. However, it was good that I have exposed myself to the basic knowledge a medical interpreter must have. 

https://www.dshs.wa.gov/fsa/language-testing-and-certification-program

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Learning about how Tallaght Hospital improved their translation services + Slowly starting with the First step...

     This week, I kept referencing an Irish Times article about how Dublin hospital, called Tallaght Hospital, improved the translation system for patients in their orthopedic ward, as I started approaching the start of my genius project.

      What was special about Tallaght’s translation system at this war was that they developed detailed orthopedic-specific translation booklets in seven different languages for the 25% of admissions that were non-English-speaking. As Miss Marie Walsh, the orthopedic clinical facilitator at the hospital, observed that for foreign patients, “even the simplest things can be worrying if they cannot understand”, the hospital worked to focus on putting translations for simple questions into their booklet. They used basic care questions, such as “Where is your pain?”, “We need to turn you on your side to look at your wound” or “Has the painkiller worked”? These basic questions are questions that are too difficult to communicate with simple hand gestures, but too easy and trivial, may I say, for an appointment or call to the professional translators. The Irish Times article states that the booklets the hospital had developed “helps facilitate open dialogue between patients and caregivers”, as it covers most areas relating to the needs of the orthopedic patient. The article concluded by stating that copies of the booklet would be given to use at any time during the patients’ stay.

     I thought it very essential to analyze what Tallaght Hospital has done with their translation booklets, as the concept and purpose is very similar to my MedCAP posters idea, yet there are many differences (both flaws and good qualities). To begin, one similarity is that Tallaght’s booklets would contain only basic care questions and information that nurses had to quickly communicate to the patient. However, I think the Tallaght booklets are better than my MedCAP idea in the sense that it is more specified and specialized to a certain field in medicine, which would be orthopedics. Therefore, I inferred that Tallaght’s booklets were most likely made to benefit physicians and nurses in that field. My MedCAP, though, focuses mainly on nursing and caring for patient’s needs all throughout the hospital. I was planning on using general nursing questions, rather than for each specialized surgeon/physician in the hospital. One thing I thought my MedCAP would be better at was that the booklet was made in seven different languages. A couple of the 7 languages have to be difficult for the nurses and physicians to pronounce or speak in. Even if the booklet does provide pronunciations in the booklet, it creates more risk that the caregiver may mispronounce and miscommunicate something. Therefore, the MedCAP is better as nurses and patients communicate with each other in Spanish or Korean by simply pointing to the questions and reading the translation themselves. Although, physicians at Tallaght can do this with their own booklets, posters are more accessible and better to point to and read from. 

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/translation-booklets-developed-for-patients-in-orthopaedic-ward-1.1044307

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Midterms over - Working on the Project Proposal!

     Midterms are finally over and I am very excited to submit my project proposal, get it approved, and started! As the project proposal must be very specific, I started creating a specific plan and agenda for myself that I will follow in creating the final product for my genius project. I really thought about what kind of materials I would need and how I would obtain them. 

     This led to more thinking about the formatting of the MedCAP posters and eventually, brief research about how and where I would obtain them. For instance, in order for the posters to be durable and look professional, I decided I needed to laminate the many posters. I already have a laminating machine, but realized I also need the sheets of laminated paper. At this point, I realized that I had not even decided how many posters I will have to make. 

      I thought about how many nursing stations there were at Englewood Hospital and also asked my dad how many there were in the building. I decided each station could use 5 posters of each language, which is a total of 10. As there are 10 nursing stations, I decided I would print and laminate 100 posters.

(http://www.staples.com/Laminating-Supplies/cat_CL142542) $54.99 

     Where would I make 100 copies of the posters I would make? I would also have to pay Staples to make copies of the two posters for me. Because I will also be making hand-drawn illustrations to go along with the phrases (making it more professional) I learned that I cannot print 100 copies and draw many illustrations for each poster all the time. So, I decided to print one copy of each language poster once at home and draw the illustrations each, as similar as possible. Then, I would take those two completed posters to Staples  and ask for them to print 50 of each poster (a total of 100). Standard delivery will take around 3 to 7 days and cost (10 cents per page) 

(http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/copyandprint/copiesanddocuments.html)

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A Better Approach to the MedCAP

Over the last two days, I have received a lot of good advice on how I can improve my project proposal and overall, genius project. Therefore, there are many minor changes that will be made to my project. The idea of making translation services quick and easy to fix the problem of time-consuming and difficult communication is kept the same, yet I decided to make my project beneficial towards nurses, especially, rather than physicians. I decided to do this, as I found out that nurses were the ones who talked to and saw the patients more. I thought my project would, therefore, be more of help to them than to physicians who would use the translation services where complicated medical/surgical procedures are explained through the phone or in person.

One challenge also came about this week while I was thinking about the effectiveness of the pamphlet. If the nurses are going to be reading from the pamphlet in order to communicate with non-English speaking patients, I will also have to write the pronunciations in Romanized Korean, which will not only be difficult to write out, but also hard for the nurses to pronounce. This may defeat the purpose of quick and easy communication between the patient and nurses. Therefore, with the advice I got from the last two conferences in class, I have decided to create laminate posters instead, that the nurses and patients can point to and read the translations (next to them) themselves. On the front side, a nurse would point to a question, such as “How are you feeling?”. The patient would then point to a possible answer on the back side of the poster or simply give a hand gesture (thumbs up or down). 

As I decided for my project to be of posters that benefit nurses, I realize that the research I had done last week about the different departments at ENglewood Hospital will not be as necessary, because I will be focusing on simple questions that nurses routinely ask patients rather than in the specialized departments. 

The websites down below are some cue cards that I have found on the internet that I can reference for the accuracy of some phrases that nurses may need to communicate to the patients. I may include pictures on my poster similar to  those on the cue cards, yet I will be more specific by using questions and answers in sentence forms. I will find out what questions to ask more in my shadowing of nurses one weekend with my father.

http://www.easternhealth.org.au/images/cue_cards/M21044_v1_634064230541939498.pdf

http://www.easternhealth.org.au/images/cue_cards/M16236_v1_634031248507263248.pdf

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The Final Decision

After completing all three research proposals, I have come to a final decision that I will improve translation services at the local hospital Englewood Hospital by donating a pamphlet of medical terms and phrases in Korean and English. 

As when I first organized what my pamphlet would look like, I had planned to categorize certain terms and phrases into sections, depending on the various centers and departments. For instance, it would be difficult for a heart surgeon to access translations if the pamphlet is not sectioned in this way, as it would take a long time to skim through the other translations about other centers irrelevant to the heart surgeon. I realized that I really only had a few sources for these questions, one being my father who could help formulate questions for his colorectal surgery field. Therefore, I researched all the centers and departments that would need to be covered at Englewood Hospital for my pamphlet to be a useful and adequate one. 

This website shows that there are 27 different departments at the hospital, so I will create 28 different sections in my pamphlet, the first section being general questions for patients and physicians. On the website, each department has a “sublink” that provides brief summaries of the department. I have started reading each department’s information, and will continue to do so next week. 

http://www.englewoodhealth.org/centers-and-departments

In order to formulate more questions, I will need more reliable sources, or feedback from real surgeons other than my dad. I plan on surveying the different nurses and doctors in many different departments of his hospital with questions, such as: What are some routine questions you ask your patients? What kinds of conversations are routine to your field in medicine? What do you often have trouble translating/explaining to non-English-speaking patients? Etc.

I will, one day, follow my dad to his workplace on a weekend to do some surveying of doctors and nurses. One challenge, however, is that doctors and nurses are almost always busy with work, and I may be a burden to them to survey them with all these questions. I will try my best to get my questions answered, and otherwise, will have my dad talk to his close friends whom are doctors to answer my survey when they have time. For the departments that I do not get enough information for, I will do the best I can with the research I can do from outside sources and on the Englewood Hospital Department sublinks.