OwenBloggers: Neeraj - MBA 2009

It's Not Like The TV Show

I did my shift in the emergency room (ER) on Wednesday night and take it from me, the real ER is not nearly as dramatic as the TV show "ER" makes it out to be. My shift in the ER was relatively quiet compared to the experience some of the other health care students had. Relatively quiet means that the only level one traumas I saw during my shift were a gunshot wound to the head and a few people that had been in car wrecks. I was in the room as the ER doctors went to work on the patients and I was absolutely amazed by how cool and calm all the people in the room were. The gunshot wound person was flown in by helicopter to the hospital  so the trauma team had about 10 minutes to prepare before the arrival. The doctors and nurses calmly prepared themselves and the room while I watched on with my adrenaline rushing. I was glad to have one of the doctors explain to me who all the people in the room were and what would happen when the patient arrived because there must have been at least twenty people in the room; some were med school students, two of us were MBA's, and the rest were a variety of  doctors and nurses all with different jobs to do. When the patient arrived, the team immediately went to work assessing the condition of the patient. This part was definitely not like the TV show where everyone is running down a hallway with dramatic music playing and and EMT yelling out what happened. Instead, the trauma team did their job very methodically with each person giving an assessment of the different vitals of the patient. It was clear that to the trauma team, this was just another day at the office. I on the other hand, was floored to be watching it all happen as an MBA student

Health Care Immersion Week

If there ever was a a reason to join the Health Care MBA program at Owen, it has to be the Health Care Immersion Week. We're only two days into the week and already I have seen things that I never thought I would see as an MBA student.

I was a bit skeptical about enjoying the week when we started off Monday morning at 6:30AM. About 30 of us groggily walked into the Oxford house near VMC where we changed into scrubs and got a quick overview about the first activity of immersion week. We were preparing to head over to the medical center to actually be in the operating rooms right next to the doctors, nurses, and patients as a surgery was being done. This was definitely going to be a heck of a lot different than being in the classroom learning about finance or accounting.

At the surgical unit at VMC, several different procedures were being done in different rooms. The nurses explained what operation was being done in each room and then two of us went in to watch the procedure. The types of operations being done included open heart surgery, brain surgery, tooth extraction, tumor removal, and a several other types of procedures that students had the chance to watch. I observed an exploratory procedure being done on a patient with a hernia. I got to watch as doctors completely opened the patient up and examined all her digestive organs. If I wasn't quite awake at 6:30AM, I certainly was wide awake then!

It was absolutely amazing to watch the surgical procedures being done and to hear about the procedures other students observed. All of us felt completely immersed in health care after watching the surgeries. The next activity was learning about the Radiology department at VMC. I thought radiology was just about interpreting x-rays. Turns out there's several units within the radiology department that specialize in the different types of imaging and for different parts of the body. The radiologist we met with analyzed about 200 cases a day using MRI, X-ray, and CT scans to asses each case. In emergency cases, the radiologist can do a full body analysis within 15 minutes. Very impressive!

Knowing What You Don't Like

A lot of different companies have been visiting Owen recently and the range of companies has been impressive. We've had everything from Fortune 500 companies like GE and Google down to small companies like Modern Holdings and ECG Consulting. There also has been plenty of financial institutions visiting too. The info sessions are a great way to learn about the internship and job opportunities at the companies, but I know for some of us, the info sessions can also make it more difficult to decide what to do...and I mean that in a good way!

There's plenty of us first years that have come back to school to either switch careers or have more doors opened up for our careers. Well, we're only and eighth of the way through b-school and I feel like I've already had a thousand doors opened up for me! Between the info sessions, talking to professors and students, and the CMC, there's no lack of opportunities for students here at Owen. The hardest thing to decide is what to do!I came to school thinking I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but after using all the resources here at Owen and hearing about all opportunities available to students, I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the choices I have. I feel like I could take my career in so many different directions at this point.

What's great about being in this situation though is that I feel lucky to be able to consider so many options. I was in the biotech industry for seven years so I appreciate learning about different industries and opportunities. What's even more important though, is that I'm learning about what interests me and what doesn't. There are plenty of first years who thought they wanted work at a certain company or industry, but after learning more about it at Owen, they're deciding to pursue other careers. That's the great thing about being here, you learn so much about what you don't like which only helps you to understand what you do like. And once you've figured out what you do like, you have all the resources you need at your disposal here to go after it and get it.