December Community Service- Master's in Pharmacology

This month, my main volunteer work has been volunteering as a Teaching Assistant for Anatomy, an undergraduate course at Tulane University. This has been my main volunteer opportunity throughout the whole semester, alongside other work. It has been a lot of fun to work with students that are learning this for the first time. I learn a lot myself by helping them and realizing what material I don't know. It has been especially fun to serve as a Teaching Assistant while in the Master's in Pharmacology because I can apply what I've learned about medicine to different organs and their functionality. Along with helping students with dissections, I hold review sessions and teach them how to prepare for the examination.

This unit was a continuation of last month when we worked through the abdominal section. This was an exciting unit because most of the drugs we have studied in class have their effect on abdominal organs or are at least metabolized and excreted through abdominal organs (liver and kidney). In our renal unit most recently, we learnd about how drugs work in the kidney and urinary tract. Being able to isolate the kidney and it's blood supply was exciting in anatomy, because then I could trace how the drug reaches the kidney from the intestine and liver. Being able to trace the drug through blood flow helped me appreciate how difficult it is to treat kidney and urinary tract complications. Along with the renal unit, our current unit of GI/Neoplasia involves a lot of functionality and toxicities in the abdominal region. For example, cisplatin and carboplatin have toxities in the kidney. It has been exciting to learn about where drugs are working and being able to find those structures in the human body throughout the semester. This experience will be invaluable as I continue my medical studies and as a medical professional.

Hours:
12/9 - 3 Hours
Total: 3 Hours
Total This semester: 29 Hours

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