Week 4: Progress

After having to wait for Institutional Review Board approval for 3 weeks, everything started progressing quickly last week. We got IRB approval on Monday, which means that we could begin testing our participants. I still didn't have access to the database we are using, however, but that came on Tuesday. On Wednesday we tested our first participant for the chest compression study. Although we still have about 100 more, it was good to start testing. Unfortunately, the number of people who signed up after we sent an email was really low.... We are looking at bringing a mannequin and laptop down to the emergency department to test our participants, who are all ED employees, in an empty room when they have time. 

I finally got my employee badge on Thursday after 4 weeks of work!

We also began designing the database for the second study we are working in.  This three-year study will begin in July, and our job is to design the data collection tool for it. We designed a preliminary version from Wednesday to Friday, and we have a meeting today (Monday) with a biostatistics professor who is one of the project investigators. Hopefully he likes what we have done!

Last Tuesday we got another tour of the emergency department and an orientation to our job in the trauma bay for the next 6 weeks. We will be taking shifts from 7-3 or 3-11 to troll for newly admitted patients who may qualify for the national studies that Penn State Hershey is participating in. I'm excited for this new task because it will mean spending less time in the library and more time in patient areas. My first shift is tomorrow morning, and i'm looking forward to it.