Monday

 

• 5 AM: Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, and dress for the day. Depending on the rotation for the morning, I will dress professionally or dress down and bring a pair of scrubs with me if I will be observing a surgery.

 

• 6:15 - 7: Ride the subway to Weill Cornell in Manhattan. Depending on train traffic and how busy things get, the ride takes about 40 minutes to 1 hour from the LIU dorms.

 

• 7 - 12/1/2 PM: Drop my bookbag off at the Urban Semester office, change into scrubs (if necessary), and walk over to the hospital to shadow a doctor or observe a surgery (neurosurgery). I take a one hour lunch, usually from 11-12.

 

• After a rotation or surgery, I sometimes attend a hospital meeting with the doctor. For example, I attend weekly heart, spine, or brain board conferences.

 

• Between 3 and 6: Arrive back at dorm after an hour commute back via subway.

 

• Rest of the evening: eat dinner, exercise at the gym, complete nightly journal and start weekly readings, send emails, shower, and head to sleep. Sometimes we will go as a group to an evening restaurant, show, sporting event, festival, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday

 

• 7 - 9 AM: Same morning routine as Monday, except a little later in the morning. I know that I usually rotate in the clinic on Tuesday mornings, so I dress professionally. I bring my scrubs with me for surgery in the afternoon.

 

• 9 - 12: Neurosurgery rotation in clinic (seeing patients).

 

• 12 - 1 PM: Lunch someplace in Manhattan

 

• 1 - 3/4/5: Cardiothoracic surgery rotation. Each week is a new procedure, so it is always interesting to see! Some surgeries take longer than others. For example, I have finished as early as 3 (stents procedure) and as late as 8 PM (aorta replacement).

 

• Afternoon/evening after leaving hospital: Same evening routine as Monday. Depending on the day, there are variations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday

 

• 8 - 10 AM: Same morning routine; professional attire not needed on Wednesdays.

 

• 10 - 12: Presentation given by a guest speaker (usually a doctor). A discussion and question/answer session follows.

 

• 12 - 1 PM: Lunch is provided to us.

 

• 1 - 2: Medical Readings seminar – each week, a student prepares a presentation and moderates a discussion on the medical readings for the week. For example, the topic of the readings could be “poverty and the brain” or “professionalism in medicine.”

 

• 2 - 3: Ethnographic reading seminar – a student-led presentation and discussion on ethnographic and anthropological texts that were assigned for the week.

 

• 3 - 5: Experiential learning reflection seminar – a group discussion about our hospital and community service experiences for the week. Self-reflection is central to this activity. We enjoy sharing a variety of stories, as each of us can learn from one another.

 

• After 5: Same afternoon routine. Sometimes we may explore Manhattan, work at the Weill Cornell library, or do a fun group activity since we are all together after class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

• Depending on the week, Thursdays and Fridays alternate between my community service and Woodhull Hospital days. On a typical community service Thursday, my schedule is as follows:

 

• 7:30 AM: Wake up and do usual morning routine; I dress professionally on some days.

 

• 8:30 - 10:00: Take the subway to the Bronx. The ride is usually quite long and can take about 1.5 hours on very busy mornings.

 

• 10 - 5 PM: Engage in community service work at the Bronx Parents Housing Network (BPHN). My community service work varies; some days I work on paperwork or participate in meetings in the office, but on most days, I go on site visits throughout the Bronx and conduct a survey with residents who live in public housing. The survey was something I helped design earlier in the semester and it asks about residents’ health histories and housing conditions. All of my community service relates to a research project that I am a part of at BPHN, in which we are examining the correlation between housing conditions and health outcomes for public housing tenants. I take an hour for lunch somewhere in the middle of my visits.

 

• After my community service, sometimes I visit high school friends at Fordham University for a little while. We usually eat dinner and go to a presentation or show on campus. Then I return home and do my usual routine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday

 

• On a typical Woodhull Hospital Friday, I usually wake up at 9 and dress professionally. I do my usual morning routine and arrive at the hospital by 10:30. The subway ride there is only about 20-30 minutes since Woodhull is in Brooklyn.

 

• 11 – 3: Rotations in the Asthma Unit. Depending on the day, I may see pediatric or adult patients with the Asthma Educator.

 

• After my rotation: I usually eat lunch after the rotation since my day begins a little later on Woodhull Days. Some Friday mornings or afternoons, I will meet with Professor Marianne Cocchini from the Urban Semester Program to discuss progress made on the BPHN research project or to meet with outreach staff from Woodhull. Afterwards, I usually take the subway home and relax until it is time for dinner or to attend an activity with friends. For example, we may go to a museum, sports event, or just explore!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekend

 

• Sleep in! Weekends are great because it is really a wonderful time to explore the city, see/do fun NYC activities, shop for groceries/weekly supplies, and just enjoy all that living in New York has to offer! In addition, students can try out a weekend rotation if they wish (I would recommend trying it out at least once). No weekend is boring or uneventful, as there is always something to do in the city.

 

• Finish weekly readings, work on weekly reflections (pertaining to the readings and ethnographic texts), and prepare weekly seminar presentation (if it is my week to present).