The National Archives Museum
Welcome back! This week the humidity started to really pick up and the first couple days were really hot. I’m starting to get the hang of working in the city and being around lots of people, I’ve figured out to ride the metro. On Monday we took all of the pre event and post event surveys from the See the City You Serve trip that the residents filled out and split them up by group. We then put all of the information into excel and analyzed the data from both the pre and post surveys. On Tuesday we attended the Children’s National Hospital Symposium where we saw a panel that was composed of different people who talked about child care and how important early development is for kids. The panelists talked about the social determinants of health and how they have a huge impact on a child’s health and well being.
Wednesday was very slow and I was introduced to a TV show called America Divided. In the afternoon we got off early and I took the metro over to the National Archives Museum where I saw the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. All of the Smithsonian museums are free so its really awesome to be able to see them whenever I want to. On Thursday we went to Grand Rounds where the president of the National Medical Association came to give a talk about Health Equity as that is her focus as the president. I am starting to figure out what the social determinants of health are and how they tie into the overall wellbeing of a patient. The determinants of health are a persons health and heath care, economic stability, education, neighborhood and built environment, and the social and community context. These are all things that doctors have to look at when they are assessing a patient because they are the underlying causes of the persons health. 
On Friday I went to a conference all day for integrative medicine where they talked all about how looking at the person as a whole will help someone figure out how to treat them properly. They also discussed how using things like yoga and mediation are alternatives for prescription drugs. I then attended a breakout session all about energy medicine and a woman talked all about how pain is stuck energy in our bodies and how by moving it around we can fix all sorts of medical problems, such as autoimmune diseases.
This weekend we went to my cousins house in Columbia, Maryland and we sat out by the pool and caught up. The upcoming week is going to be busy because the summer youth employment program kids are coming. I am excited to keep learning more about health care and hope to do more with surgery in the upcoming weeks.
Nice update, looks like you are staying busy. JIM