Last weekend I volunteered at the Freret Market with Zeus' Rescues as I have for the past few months. By now I have the routine down and many of the event organizers now know me on a first name basis. This month we had a group of medical and PhD students volunteering from Tulane along with some of our veteran volunteers. They wanted to get some face time with the dogs and knew Zeus' would be a perfect way to help socialize the dogs but also would be a pre-exams stress reliever. I took advantage of the opportunity to discuss how they enjoy their programs, the rigor of their coursework, and what they did to prepare for school. It was reassuring to hear that doing a master's degree is a great way for me to learn fundamental knowledge and become accustomed to the rigor. At this halfway point in the program, many of my peers are starting to plan our next steps after completing this program and I plan to do some planning of my own over break.
As mentioned previously, this past module we learned about alternative and complementary medicine. I found myself dismayed several times throughout this section of the module. Learning how herbal supplements are advertised falsely was no surprise but it was distressing to read how many people in the United States take herbal supplements that are unregulated and potentially unsafe because they believe the supplements are effective. As someone that is hoping to make better and safer drugs in my future career, I find it upsetting that people knowingly take advantage of people wanting to improve their health and well-being. I'm reminded that learning about the safe practice of medicine is important to improving other people's health but medical ethics are the essential framework to keep medical professionals and scientists from doing harm.
I hope everyone that reads this has a happy holidays and safe December.
December Volunteer Hours: 6.0
Fall Semester Volunteer Hours: 24.0
