For this assignment, I had to interview someone who inspires me and then demonstrate my learning in a written response. The person I chose is my friend’s mom who is a cardiovascular technologist. I chose her because her field highly interests me. She really inspires me because I don’t think I have it in me to work so hard. Being a cardiovascular technologist means long hours and many years of school which is something that scares me a lot.
Can you explain your roles and responsibilities with your current position?
I have a lot of certifications…cardiology technologist, cardiovascular technologist, electrophysiology technologist, and cardiac device rhythm technologist. I monitor patients and assistant doctors during invasive cardiac testing and procedures. I also program cardiac device implants like pacemakers and defibrillators. I also stimulate and pace the heart from inside the patient’s heart from various locations inside the heart. I also do non-invasive testing like ECG, stress tests, Holter monitoring, and device programming.
Pacemaker implant- it is a device that paces your heartbeat and helps the heart beat in a regular rhythm.
Defibrillator implant- This device has the ability to send a strong electric shock to the heart to restore the heartbeat to normal if it detects any problems.
What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?
I have experienced obstacles like constantly having to take more courses to gain more certifications this was by choice as I like to advance. The other obstacle was years of being on call for somewhere between 14 to 96 hours at a time while having a family.
What advice would you pass on to someone interested in what you are doing?
My advice would be to figure out which certification you would like to end up with in the long term and keeping that in mind so it makes the education path clear.
Why are you passionate about your job or role?
I am passionate about my job because I have every certification I can offer a complete picture when it comes to the patient. I see things other tech don’t. I love that I have helped save more lives and or help fix than I can count. One of my doctors estimates that in the 25 years, I have done this about 30000 patients. I’m not sure but it feels good. There are some patients I have known for years. They express their gratitude all the time. It makes every minute I am at work worth it.
How long is the education and is it worth it?
Each one of my certifications is 2 years of courses and a 1-year practicum. I am also working on s bachelor’s of science with a major in health science.
What don’t you like about your job?
I love that I work in a high-tech area of Healthcare that sees constant advancement in technology and techniques. So there is constant learning and change.
What have you learned from the interview and how does it connects to your passions/interests?
I learned that just because you got a certification or degree, it doesn’t mean that school is over. Cardiology and other careers related to health need constant learning. I think I might want to study medicine when I get older but I am not sure what field to explore. I am a bit skeptical about working in a hospital because of the night shifts and long hours. Hearing this from my friend’s mom made me respect her more because she raised a family and still continues to study. We had a chat on the phone while I called my friend, she explained in depth her challenges and rewards. She helped me a lot because even though I will get a chance to save others’ lives, I will also be throwing away my free time and sleep schedule. I now know what it is like to work in her field, maybe I should stick to dentistry. There are a lot of upsides too like a stable career and other benefits. This interview taught me that cardiology requires many years of school but if you pull through there are many benefits from it.
This assignment was to learn more about first nation communities and residential schools. I worked alone and I chose St Anne’s residential school.
Podcast:
-Your experiences creating this assignment.
My experience while working on this assignment was mostly pretty good. I learned a lot while writing and researching. I have never made a podcast before so I got to experience that, it was pretty hard. Some things were pretty shocking but also not at the same time. Surprisingly, I actually was happy to experience something new and have a challenge rather than write an essay or something.
– Your group’s path in researching the topic.
I wanted to do the residential school topic but was unsure what school to pick so I resorted to Google. I searched up “The worst residential school in Canada” and St Anne’s came up. While researching I found out that it fits the title way too much. Sometimes I would get distracted just because the torture methods were crazy and I needed to back it up even though I know I won’t include it. I also spent a lot of time reading stories from survivors. As expected they were heartbreaking and apparently most survivors only got to share their stories when they reach adulthood due to the lack of knowledge of the subject. Which goes to show how important it is to learn more about their experiences.
– Obstacles or items you learnt in recording.
Since I worked alone it was hard to make it sound like a conversation or “bounce your ideas off each other”. I tried my best to sound conversational but while recording I found out that I have a very monotone voice. When reading my script I found that my voice sounds un normally high and it doesn’t sound natural. My mom likes to listen to Chinese podcasts when she drives to school but they were usually two people or more. Before recording, I listened to other solo podcasts and tutorial videos and they recommend pretending you are talking to a friend but my voice doesn’t sound like me at all not matter how hard I try to control it. Another problem I ran into was getting the chance to record. There were some rooms but most people got them so I and someone else split the time we spent in it. Overall, stressful but doable.
Option 1: Critical Thinking … How does your artifact tie in with what you have learned before? How has your thinking changed?
During the process of this project, I already knew what residential schools were like but this one was beyond what I thought was bad. At first, I thought that the goal was to strip them of their culture but I think St Anne’s just wanted to kill them all. This project was to teach both others and me about St Anne’s residential school. Throughout my years at school, I learned many things about residential schools and their impact, the impact from this school was just as bad, if not worse. Before this project, it was just another residential school to me. After researching I understand why people called it hell on earth. I don’t think my thinking changed but I would say I am more educated now than before. Maybe you could say that now I know a lot more and can share a lot more. In conclusion, creating this project I used the knowledge I already knew and researched it bit more to teach other about it.
While researching I found out that it fits the title way too much. Sometimes I would get distracted just because the torture methods were crazy and I needed to back it up even though I know I won’t include it. I also spent a lot of time reading stories from survivors. As expected they were heartbreaking and apparently most survivors only got to share their stories when they reach adulthood due to the lack of knowledge of the subject. Which goes to show how important it is to learn more about their experiences.
Since I worked alone it was hard to make it sound like a conversation or “bounce your ideas off each other”. I tried my best to sound conversational but while recording I found out that I have a very monotone voice. When reading my script I found that my voice sounds un normally high and it doesn’t sound natural. My mom likes to listen to Chinese podcasts when she drives to school but they were usually two people or more. Before recording, I listened to other solo podcasts and tutorial videos and they recommend pretending you are talking to a friend but my voice doesn’t sound like me at all not matter how hard I try to control it. Another problem I ran into was getting the chance to record. There were some rooms but most people got them so I and someone else split the time we spent in it. Overall, stressful but doable.
at school, I learned many things about residential schools and their impact, the impact from this school was just as bad, if not worse. Before this project, it was just another residential school to me. After researching I understand why people called it hell on earth. I don’t think my thinking changed but I would say I am more educated now than before. Maybe you could say that now I know a lot more and can share a lot more. In conclusion, creating this project I used the knowledge I already knew and researched it bit more to teach other about it.