Ana Witkowski / Dr. Bostrom Week 6

 This week has been great, because my IRB is finally approved! I spent this week setting up the protocols and beginning to screen patients. My study is pretty specific, so its going to be a bit of a struggle to find all of the patients for the study, but I am excited to get it started and hopefully get some good data! It has been interesting to see how now that the IRB is approved exactly what you have to do to stay compliant with the consent forms and the information tracking. Each one of the patients in my study has to have a separate form for screening and consent, just to have a paper trail of the record. In addition to that I have to coordinate getting the consent with a clinical researcher, since I cannot obtain the proper consent. This will be a very fun experience!


We also had a mentorship lecture this morning that was very interesting. It was a good time to reflect on how I mentor others and a good reminder on how to get the most out of my mentoring relationships. It’s not often we get a full on lecture on mentorship, and I think it would be nice to get the reminders more often! Our presenter did a great job laying out the pitfalls of beginning to be a mentor and the check lists that she gave us will definitely help if I get undergrad students in the lab in this next year, to help us both get the most out of the experience.


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