Summer Job

Howdy everyone. I hope you are all doing well.

I'm currently scouting out jobs for summer employment before I go off to UVA. There are a couple of ambulance services that are hiring EMT-Basics (which I am now by the way). The problem is probably going to be my age since I'm under 18 (just turned 17). However a lot of physician's offices are trying to recruit me because they need medical assistants (big time RN shortage around here).

We had four MVAs last duty and not a single transport. On one hand I'm glad they weren't serious enough that they would require transport, but on the other hand I enjoy transporting patients. I feel sorry for one of our patients who took a brand new Corvette right through a chain link fence. Scratched the car to pieces and destroyed the light covers. I don't know how the driver managed to do it. I suspect some alcohol involvement though.

Medical News:

How Mental Stress May Raise Heart Disease Risk

'Most people believe that stress plays a role in heart disease. A study published in the latest issue of Psychophysiology finds that large rises in blood pressure during mental stress are associated with higher levels of activity in the regions of the brain associated with experiencing negative emotions and generating physiological responses in the rest of the body. The research suggests that exaggerated activity in the cingulate cortex during mental stress may generate excessive rises in blood pressure that may place some individuals at a greater risk for heart disease. Most of what is known about the brain and its links to stress and heart disease has been taken from research on animals. This study on humans used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI ), a non-invasive technique for imaging brain activity. While they were inside an MRI scanner, twenty healthy men and women performed a computer task to create mental stress that, consequently, increased their blood pressure. This allowed the researchers to correlate simultaneous changes in blood pressure and brain activity during stress. This study is published in the current issue of Psychophysiology.'

I don't stand a chance then...

DinB DNA Polymerase Is A Key Player In DNA Repair

'A quarter century after they discovered it, researchers have identified the job of one of the most common DNA-damage response proteins. The enzyme has puzzled scientists because it is present in nearly every organism, which suggests that it is crucial to life, and yet, in laboratory experiments, its function has remained a mystery. The discovery suggests that the enigmatic enzyme known as DinB DNA polymerase is specialized for proficient and accurate replication of a particular kind of damaged DNA, reports Graham Walker, an HHMI professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his colleagues in the January 12, 2006, issue of the journal Nature. HHMI professors are leading research scientists who received $1 million grants from the Institute to bring innovative teaching to the undergraduate classroom. DNA is assaulted daily by toxic chemicals, metabolic byproducts, sunlight, and other forms of radiation. Most of the nicks and dings are quickly fixed by the cell's fleet of precision DNA repair processes, which can surgically excise and replace a faulty section. '

The sad part is that I understand that and understand the processes going along with it...