Presentation Day

Presentation Day is here. All the hard work I, my group, and the other 3 groups have worked toward has finally been presented to our preceptors, interested parties, executive members, and our peers. A sad relief.

We spent the morning finalizing, reviewing, and practicing for the big moment; each of our PowerPoints eagerly on standby. The presentations began at 11 with the Aaron, Luke, and Caitlyn focusing upon how to inform patients about the optical shop process (they make the patient’s glasses in the hospital itself). The next group was the first of two Pediatric Department presentations. Maya, Tyler, and Kristi presented an elaborate set of posters encouraging young children, primarily females, to wear their prescription glasses. Glasses are cool. Whoop Whoop! In India, there is a cultural stigmatism surrounding young women, glasses, and marriage. The posters hope to change this!

Now, it was our time to shine. My group’s primary focus was to perform an analysis of the Pediatric Department’s Anesthesia Protocol and offer recommendations to improve staff accountability and patient safety. According to Dr. Laxmi, we delivered. In total, our team produced nine different deliverables to Dr. Laxmi – she only provided us with 4 to begin. In each tour, we would interact with another team member, recognize an area for improvement, talk to Dr. Laxmi, push ourselves to complete the additional task, and move on to the next. Similar to the real world, we balanced our capabilities, created a timeline, and adjusted as we completed tasks. Very applicable to everyone’s career goals, specifically myself and the other MHA student in the group, Swati.

The last group, Nel, Mary, and Ashley, presented a new newsletter to Aravind’s executive council. The previous newsletter had become outdated and staff interest had decreased in the past few years. Aravind wanted to find a way to reinvigorate the newsletter and disseminate the information to as many staff as possible.

Today, every group excelled. The teachers could not have been more proud. And the students, well…it was the signal to the end of an adventure, the end of a class, but the beginning of new friendships – once we all get back to the states of course.

Most important, we all recognize India will always remain a part of us. The culture, the beauty, and a country’s warm embrace. For me though, this trip was an important reminder that best practices can be found any place in the world if you stop and take a second to visual and listen.

Aaron M. Horsfield