Orientation

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Pathologists' Assistant Program at WVU does hold a two-day orientation for incoming students. Holding an orientation may not be practical for other master's programs, but when one considers that many different people from all over the country are coming together to a foreign city, it seems prudent. Due to the small class sizes, as we progress through the year I expect that we'll become more and more of a tightly knit "family" and this kind of an orientation more easily facilitates becoming acquainted with each other.

Whenever a dozen or so strangers are put into a room for the first time, it's no surprise that people may be tense and their minds scrambling to find anything at all to say to keep the dread of silence away. We started off with breakfast and an ice-breaker game to get to know a little more about each of the 16 of us. It may seem cliche, but you really can't judge a book by its cover. My classmates and I are like books and although we've read the first chapter of everyone's book (the ice-breaker game), only by spending a year or so with each other will we really see what makes each of us tick. I definitely look forward to getting to know everyone better.

After the usual syllabus review and tour of the facilities we received our laptops. It looks like every student at the health science center is required to have the same standardized laptop for classes and tests. I can imagine that this is the kind of laptop that The Jetsons would use since there are so many functions. It's mind boggling. I'll probably never even use half of the things that this thing is capable of. It's too early to say what I think of the Jetsons' laptop, but at nearly $2000 a pop, it had better be worth it.

The next day, we had lunch and attended a few more lectures regarding laboratory safety, using the library, etc... WVU is unique in that it is not only a university, it is also a miniature theme park. The PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) system is like a caboose on wheels and it can shuttle you between different parts of the campus in just a minute or two. Since the area is hilly, you get a nice little roller coaster ride whenever you want to go between campuses. No air time though. Too bad. The day ended with dinner at a nice restaurant.

The program directors really took good care of us these past two days. Perhaps, too good, since now I've got to be conscious of how much I eat at all of these mini-buffets they have been providing us with. No complaints here.

---------------------

Classes start on Monday. I'm glad that I was able to complete up through dissection 19 of 32 on the University of Michigan Medical Gross Anatomy online course, but if I didn't have to study for the GRE I would have already finished it. One more reason to hate tests that hold no relevance to what one studies.

---------------------

I should also mention that we completed an online HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) training course. Those who work in the field of health care need to be aware of the rules and regulations concerning patient information. (The rules are fairly intuitive, but it makes you feel like you're working in some sort of top-secret facility where one slip of the tongue can lead to nuclear winter. I can imagine walking down the hallway and seeing one of those wartime posters of "How about a nice big cup of ___?" ) In any case, the proper handling of patient information is essential to top quality patient oriented medical care, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

A training module on HIPAA can be found here:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/training/index.html