Reflection: Week 13 & 14

And then there was one...well technically two but one week of in-class activities. It's exciting to know summer is almost here and then I can move my green thoughts to a more outdoor aspect. Maybe I'll take another compass adventure...
Week 13

I would have to say the compass expedition was the highlight of the week for me. The point of this activity was to learn the proper techniques of using a compass so that if ever it happens that you are stranded by yourself in the middle of nowhere with a compass, you just might be able to find your way out. Luckily my group (Valerie, Kathy, and Kailiegh) proved to be naturals in the arts of compass navigation. Ha. Even if we weren't Kathy's bright fuchsia shirt could have been spotted from ways away. I missed the video "Story of Stuff" but the video on the website explained to me it was about. Wish I wouldn't of missed that day. This week we had the assignment to do an overview of our issue. This assignment was pretty simple. We had to gather information about our bill and blog about it.

Week 14

The first part of this week introduced us to careers within the Environment Health field. Along with this Dr. V. brough in a guest speak to talk to the class about his career and what he does to help with environmental health. The advocacy assignmnet for this week was to compose a letter that we would send to congressional representative regarding our thoughts and how they could help out to pass our bill we chose. The second day of this week we had to get our brains thinking on the junk side of things. Dr. V. brought in an assortment of things that may be considered junk but can also be repurposed in different ways. In our web groups we had to brainstorm ways we could repupose each item.

At first I thought this advocacy proejct was goign to be stressful and a lot of work but it turned out not to be so bad. Taking it step by step made this assignment easy and quite infromative. I'm looking forward to next week's classes, especially the guest speark and pizza day!

Adios!

Advocacy Project: Letter to Public Official

April 28, 2009
Senator Amy Klobuchar
U.S. Senate
302 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Senator Klobuchar,

The proposed bill H.R. 1309 that encourages the adoption and implementation of interoperability into the health technology systems will provide the United States with improved health care quality, reduced medical errors, and increase in the efficiency of care. With your help on passing this bill not only will it improve our health systems by the actions stated above but it will also allow for greater communication between doctors, patients, nurses, and health office representatives. Improved communication can allow for improved work flow, optimal care, and a decrease in duplicated medical records caused by the standard technology systems. For future insight, the passage of this bill will enable students in college working towards a health care administrating degree's to enter their job with the confidence and assurance that they have the precise technology provided to them to advance the way hospitals operate. Not only will this bill affect the future prospects in the health care field but will affect the present citizens looking for the best possible care from their local hospitals. Because interoperability connects all systems and records into a network it will allow patients to access online medical portfolios that may contain information regarding treatments, status,and future appointments. Interoperability will aid everyone young and old is not forgotten about when it comes to health. With your help by voting "yes" to House Bill# 1309 we can revolutionize the United States health system by simply turning data into intelligence.

Thank you Senator Amy Klobuchar!

-Noah Funk