Getting Ready

For my internship, I am going to Scripps Memorial Hospital, and specifically to the pathology lab. There are two main buildings at this hospital, one being a huge emergency department, and the second containing more officines and clinics. I will be interning in the second building, in the pathology department. Pathology is the science associated with the cause and effect of diseases, which means looking at body tissues and samples. My mentor is pathologist Kurt Mathews MD, however, I will be working with many different people as my mentor is exceptionally busy and not always at this hospital. I will also be working with five other pathologists, Dr. Spinosa, Dr. Gibbs, Dr. Bahn, and Dr. Chang. I will also be doing rounds in phebotomy, blood bank, chemistry, and with the pathology assistants. I will be doing a lot of watching and learning, looking through a second microscope at the same specimines as my mentor. I will have to study outside of internship hours in order to understand what I'm seeing. I will also be preparing slides and running parallel tests on known samples, not original tests, in order to learn how the tests are done. I am really excited just to have this experience. The people I'm interning with are very friendly and everyone seems to enjoy their work. I am particularly excited to try tests out for myself. However, I am nervous about finding a project to work on. THis is a hospital, which means that they are already efficient and I'm not sure what I can help improve.