Time to Get It All Done

Over the course of this week, ISM students had to complete more research, finalize my resume, and begin cold calls. This week I researched about an interview that was conducted with cardiothoracic surgeons for ideas for my information interviews I will be setting up. Also, I was able to learn about what surgical triage is and how it is applied to the real world when a question of ethics is present. Regarding my resume, I changed a few things to make sure I presented a good picture of who I am. It helped tremendously to have the help of peer review, so more people with fresh eyes can evaluate my content. Lastly, I began cold calling and scheduled my first interview with Dr. Tauriainen at Baylor Heart Hospital. This is such a great step to my ISM journey this year, and I cannot wait to learn more and more about cardiothoracic surgery.

My research about the triages was very interesting to me because in medical shows I have seen before, they emphasize the seriousness of such occurrences for they happen when a great number of people are hurt. For surgery in general, it is obvious that it takes a lot of equipment to accurately treat patients; however, when such luxury is not provided, less people can be treated, leading to a ranking system for physicians to know which patients need medical attention and which patients, realistically, will not get better from this medical attention. This brings in the ethical issue with physicians because they must let go of care to save others with a higher possibility to survive. This is very unfortunate but ensures a better outcome of patients to live as a whole.

My cold calling process started quite shaky. My first call was to a doctor who had been retired for around seventeen years and lives in another state. This was difficult as it was my first call to any cardiothoracic surgeon. However, I kept calling more and more professionals and finally landed an interview! Last year, I felt that it was much easier to go through the cold calling phase because from the first call, I was able to find interviews, pushing my confidence up. Cardiothoracic surgeons are more busy, so it is upto me to keep on calling and not get discouraged when I leave many voicemails all the time. My goal for the next week is to find more people to interview and be prepared for the one with Dr. Tauriainen the following week.

All in all, I was able to complete all of the things I planned to do in an efficient manner. For the next week, I will be attending the Business Symposium on Wednesday, creating SMART goals, researching more, and finding more interviews. This is a lot, but by planning my time to complete tasks like the previous weeks, I will get them all done.

Best Regards,

Anuja Jayachandran