Rachel Yoken's Senior Project: Saving Eyes

          Every time I walk to the waiting room to call out a patient's name, I always make sure to check their date of birth before doing an optical coherence tomography(OCT) scan or a work up in the exam room. However, since I am pretty new at the job, I haven't exactly nailed down the routine quite yet. Just a few days ago, after prepping a chart and hurrying towards the waiting room to bring a patient back, I forgot to ask for his date of birth before heading straight to get an OCT. Only after I had gotten several images did I remember to ask him to confirm his date of birth. The numbers clearly didn't match up, and I realized with a sinking feeling in my stomach that I had grabbed the wrong person! Unfortunately, I had to tell the patient to head back to the waiting room even after I had already done most of the OCT. And honestly, it was a pretty awkward and funny experience, since the other patient who I was supposed to grab was waiting patiently...

 For my senior project, I am working as an ophthalmic technician at Eyehealth Northwest. I chose this project because I am interested in pursuing a pre-health track in college so I wanted to get a taste of what it's like to work in the medical field. I also wanted to gain further knowledge on certain ocular diseases and the preventative care that is provided for treatment. I was inspired by my sister who had a similar job a few years back and was able to learn so much about medical treatments that are used in the field of ophthalmology. For me, I have been interested in becoming a doctor for a while, and I knew that training at Eyehealth Northwest would be a way to experience this even as a graduating senior-- and ultimately, figuring out whether I will continue work in the medical field.  I am working with other ophthalmic technicians and the on retinal specialist in the retina department, which is different from general ophthalmology. Last summer, I actually started training...