Hemiplegia Lab

This week was spent preparing for our mentor interview and researching our chosen field. The research we've gathered this week was submitted on five notecards, which will be put into a special tool that will use the information to create an outline for our future paper. From there, our next major assignment meant finding a mentor and preparing to interview them before officially asking them to mentor us this year. We also participated in our Biomed game, balderdash with medical terms, we use this game as a fun way to learn new terminology and collect points that can later be turned in for actual grade points throughout the year.

Wednesday was our skills lab and it focused on the effects of a stroke, specifically hemiplegia. Hemiplegia is the partial paralysis that can occur after a stroke. In this lab, we were tasked with everyday tasks: putting on socks and shoes, a t-shirt, and buttoning and unbuttoning a dress shirt; however, we had to complete these tasks with one functioning hand and no functioning legs. This lab meant that we could better understand the difficulties that stroke patients often face through first-hand experience with what is considered easy tasks for an able-bodied person. Before conducting the lab we watched videos of a woman showing how to complete these tasks with only one functioning hand properly, and then we were told to replicate her actions as our lab assignment.