Reflective Essay On Shadowing

It was Wednesday and only the second week of my internship in the emergency room and I was not expecting a particularly hectic day. Wednesday mornings were comparatively easier than Mondays and I mostly waited until I was needed. As I was walking and double checking to see if the hospital rooms were prepped and ready, a nurse ran by me and quickly said something to me. I could not make out the words but when I saw her beckoning me to one of the trauma rooms. The EMT and the doctor were busy with a newly arrived patient, so I ran over. On the bed was an elderly man, whose nose was gushing blood. The nurse and the doctor were hard at work with the man and his son, trying multiple ways to stop the bleeding. Various terms were thrown out and the son explained to his father what was going to happen. The nurse pointed out the chair behind me in case I felt queasy and needed to sit down. I remembered how scared of needles I was when I was a kid and how I dreaded getting my blood drawn. Standing in that room reminded me of how much I

I was fascinated by how a specific cancer forms and what factors lead to its emergence. Interning at UHS made it much easier to find an oncologist to shadow since I was already familiar with the hospital. Shadowing Dr. Khan is an experience I will never forget. Unsure of what to expect or what to do, I followed him around as he saw his patients. We saw patients with various diseases like breast cancer, colon cancer, thrombocytopenia, and hemophilia. I was afraid his blunt, honest attitude would be off-putting to his patients, new and old. However, every patient I encountered, over the six weeks I spent there, received his comments and suggestions warmly. Some would even remark how he was the best doctor they ever had and how they owed their life and health to him. Dr. Khan remained humble and would reply, “Everything is up to the Big Boss, not