After writing an essay on reflections about the human condition, a narrative evolved which posed the question if the conservation of life held the highest value in terms of what’s the most important. This narrative was recounted throughout my collegiate career where I became fascinated with questions in neuroscience, cognitive development, and software engineering in order to contribute to the human experience. I amassed textbook knowledge with an unbiased reflection using the broad model theory from our interdisciplinary program. Wikipedia.com has an article that sheds light on a new term in regards to the hierarchies of working classes which describes laborers with unique and special skills as ‘gold collar workers’. The term was cited from Robert Earl Kelley’s book “The Gold-Collar Worker: Harnessing the Brainpower of the New Work Force”. In order to show support for this concept, I’m conducting a beta test using an online blog, MedicineBits.com.
The purpose of this website is to gauge public interest in regards to education psychology while learning the benefits of using code for communities and independent medical practices. In the blog, I will share tutorials, reflections from computer programming coding labs, and reflections from volunteering in a Neuro Intensive Care Unit to establish a connection to health informatics. Depending on the feedback loop, the content may be applied to instructional design theories to develop content for a Learning Management System offered for future users.
MedicineBits.com will follow the situation cognition theory by sharing blog posts in relation to cognitive development from experiences of teaching young adults and children computer programming concepts while implementing the same knowledge for conducting medical data analysis. According to Psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s scaffolding theory, volunteering could provide the structure to encourage learning data analysis through blogging and teaching computer programming from a educational psychology and cognitive development perspective.
As an example, the first task as a volunteer in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit was to research environmental noise within intensive care units and how it correlates to finding possible solutions using Integrative Health which is terminology for clinician wellness programs at hospitals supported by volunteers. During the past few weeks, I’ve been able to learn about patient delirium, brain activity, and I also received more in depth knowledge by interviewing nurses one-on-one followed by an invitation to shadow an EEG Tech. The feedback from nurses during interviews concerned the stresses of having to respond to families questions, physicians requests, and also working under pressure to satisfy patients as well as their families with occasional limited staffing. Some of the nursing staff resources were stretched by having 3 patients per nursing resource instead of the standard 2 patients per nursing resource. They also addressed how this could be a potential risk due to the short-cutting of tasks which may lead to higher risks of clinician depression despite having good intentions.
This experience posed questions such as the following:
If technology could be an aid in predicting early symptoms of depression or if it can assist with resolving stages of depression?
Could the use of paper forms for tracking patient information in hospitals be reduced down to digital software?
Could this same frustration or depression be experienced in educational technology and how can we alleviate those stressors while designing educational curriculums?
