Week Eight

Honestly, I have not done a whole lot of research for my project yet. These past couple of weeks have been crazy; between, midterms, lab reports, and being out of town, I have not had much time to focus on this paper. Depending on what I find in the literature, I think I would like to narrow my topic to the illiteracy in a group of people who all have a certain type of disease, such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes. I would like to focus also on miscommunication between health care professionals and the patients who have these diseases. Finally, I would like to look at what tactics health care professionals use to help patients understand their diseases.

This week in the Manguel reading, I thought his discussion of how early libraries used to organize books was interesting. They used similar organization tools like we do today, such as organizing books by categories, but I thought it was interesting when Manguel described that alphabetizing books was a practice that was not around early on. When I was younger, I had a big bookshelf in my bedroom with quite a variety of books. I think I had the worst possible way of organizing them; I organized my books by height, from tallest to shortest. This was not helpful for finding books on the shelf, but I just thought it looked nicer! I don't have many books to organize today, but I think I have grown up a bit and would probably organize them in alphabetical order rather than by height.

Week Seven

Pencils to Pixels:
The Pencils to Pixels reading and today's discussion made me think about the technological progression that has happened in my family. We have always been behind when it comes to getting the latest technology. We didn't get a computer until I was in sixth grade; my best friend's family had one and I was so jealous that she got to play games on it all the time! I started using it a lot in middle school, mostly for IMing people and for typing papers for school. Even though I would type the papers I handed in, I always wrote my first draft by hand, and continued doing this throughout high school. This seemed like a much easier way to get my ideas down rather than typing them first. Now, I cannot imagine writing out an entire draft by hand. As for email, I had an email account starting in middle school, which my sister set up for me. She really got our family started on email, because one year, she took a five week trip to Europe and that was how she communicated with us. Since then my family has been brought up to date on computers, but we are still the last family to get any new technology such as DVD players or digital cameras.

Writing for School:
I have mixed feelings on writing for school. I think it is really important that we have writing assignments in school, otherwise my writing skills would not be at the level they are at today. Writing for English class, or any class for that matter, is the best way for a student to improve their skills, in my opinion. On the other hand, I don't like that we lack freedom when writing for classes. I hate when I have to read an assigned book and write a paper on it. I would prefer to pick a book of my choice, because then I feel like I had some options with the assignment. For that reason, I am really looking forward to the research papers we are working on right now, because the topic is so broad and we therefore have a lot of freedom in choosing what we would like to research.

Week Six

Lately, I've been thinking about regrets. As my undergraduate career comes to an end, I've been looking back and wishing that I had been involved in more things, or had more crazy nights, or kept in better touch with certain people. I guess these aren't really regrets, but more could've, would've, should've things. These things have been on my mind a lot lately, and a recent talk with my mom added one more "I should've..." to my list. We were talking about a close elderly friend of ours whose quality of life has been slowly declining. Sally is 92 years old and like a third grandma to me. We met her and her husband when I was a baby. We lived in a duplex next to them, and when we moved into a new house we kept in touch. My family used to go over to their house often for dinner; after dinner, the adults would play dominos and cards while my brother, sister and I would play dress-up in their basement. Sally's husband, Mike, passed away a few years ago and since then, she's been really depressed. I can see it in her face and hear it in her voice; she just doesn't have the bounce she used to. Her kids all knew that she wouldn't live very long after Mike went, because their love was so strong. She lived for him. Just recently, Sally's family moved her into an apartment complex, and while she's still living independently, she should probably be somewhere where there is 24 hour care. Lately, Sally's son has been taking her to his house every night for dinner and to stay overnight, because she is not taking care of herself. They recently found her sitting in the dark in her apartment, and she hasn't been eating or drinking. I got so upset when I heard this, because I'm starting to realize that she won't be around forever. I wish I would've made more time for her over the past few years, because she is so happy when we visit her. She would ask me to come over and play games all the time, and while we visited her a lot, I think I should have gone more. I've told my mom that I think she should live with my parents, but they are gone too much during the day, and she would have nothing to do all day. I just hope that she will be around for a few years more so I can spend more time with her and get rid of my regrets.

Week Five

I have never really thought about library space, or the way that the set-up of a room is designed for or affects its users. Now that I've thought about what I like in a library setting, I notice how the space affects my work. First of all, I have to have bright lights. That's part of the reason that I study at the library and not at home. I need the lights to keep me awake and focused. I also don't like too much clutter, or in a library, too many bookstacks. I don't like to study at memorial for this reason. The quietest areas are in the stacks, but I feel closed in. Also, I need to walls of the cubicle to keep my focus, otherwise I look around at other people too much. I believe these are the reasons college library works so well for me; it has bright lights, quiet rooms with cubicles, and enough space that I don't feel trapped. Additionally, I can have noise in the form of my music, but I don't get distracted by other people talking. The reading this week and our discussion on Wednesday made me realize how important your study and work space is.

For my research project, I think I am going to focus on an issue with health care and the barriers to communication. The barriers that I would like to focus on are not language barriers, but barriers that deal with explaining health related problems to people who have no background knowledge on the subject. I was talking to my sister a little bit about this idea, and she told me some experiences she has had at work. My sister works as an RN at Loyola hospital in Chicago, in the Neuro ICU. She told me of a very simple, yet extremely frequent argument she gets into with families. In the neuro ICU, the nurses do not put blankets on their patients because if they got a fever, it would be very detrimental to the areas of their brains that are healing. Many family members continuously try to cover their loved ones, and she tries to explain why they cannot have blankets, but they rarely understand. Examples like these have encouraged me to look into this type of communication barrier for my research paper.