Weekly Report #11
10/29/18-11/4/18
Last week was very busy in terms of attending interviews and editing my idea for original work. On Monday, I met with Dr. John Talmadge in his Dallas private practice office to talk about different advances in the field of Psychiatry as well as his experiences in the field. However, that and much more was learned, as well as various terminologies and ideas, and personal challenges that he himself went through coming into the field. He had even given me contacts of two psychiatrists and agreed to help work through the original work proposal to see what would and would not be doable. This really opened my eyes to the psychiatric work-life and what a psychiatrist needs to understand about the field before entering it.
Later that day, I also had a phone interview with Dr. Lisa Clayton, where the goal was to get as much information as possible about the difference in experiences between a patient and an evaluee. This directly contributes to what my original work is about, so it was definitely informative to get her take on it. One thing that stood out most was when she noted the importance in the way you ask questions, as an evaluee’s response may be more jaded than a patient. The plan is to take this into account when coming up with the medical report.
Besides that, I even spoke with my ISM teacher on questions over the original work and making sure that it was plausible and could be accomplished. This caused me to make a minor change where instead of studying two different cases, only one would be analyzed, as it would be more logical to compare both an evaluation and a patient record. Going off of this, the goal for this week is to begin creating the original work timeline once it has been approved as well as continue preparing for the research presentation on Friday. The plan is to spend more time each day preparing for it. For example, to spend forty-five minutes on one day and ten minutes more the next day, and build up. Other than that, the hope is to continue contacting people to get more interviews by catching up on all the follow-ups and calling the rest of the people on the contact list during class.