In the afternoons, Vicky and I leapt from the pleasures of Lunch into the pressures of Epidemiology. We would report to the office of Craig Gilliam, our supervisor, go over our agenda for the day, and head out to see the hospital.

Infection Control is an essential part of every hospital. Because there are so many sick people in a small area, and since some of them are bound to have air-borne contagions, sometimes people can contract more diseases during their stay. A big concern of the Infection Control department is Bacterial and Fungal infections. These are relatively rare, but can be deadly, especially if they show up on someone who is at high risk, if they are immuno-suppressed for example. There are a few things that put people at an increased risk for infections, and the three of us followed two of them in particular: Foley sites and CVLs. Every day we would get out our charts of patients and walk to the burn unit and PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) and check for these. We had to keep track of all the patients in these areas who had either of the two, when and where the lines were placed, when they were changed out, whether they were silver, or ABX impregnated, and if an infection had developed. After we did the rounds, we would return to the office and type our findings into the Excel database.

This was our main duty, but we also did a lot of other things as well. Once a week we would accompany Craig and several heads of departments on "Administrative Rounds." Twice a year the hospital had to have inspections by the heads of departments, and ACH chose to do them very slowly, one area at a time, once a week, so the whole rotation took about half a year. Craig was looking for things like soap in the Dispensers (Hand washing is an important part of infection control), other people were looking to see if all the fire doors were working properly, or if Environmental Services had taken out the trash, and things like that. We also got to spend a lot of time in the NICU, with all the really small babies. We also got to participate in an air-sampling exercise, testing the air in patient rooms, the hallway, the ORs, and outside for airborne fungi and bacteria.

There were some down sides as well. Because it was a hospital, sometimes the children we were following died, and that could be hard, especially if we had been seeing them every day for four weeks. But I learned more about medical science in my five weeks working in infection control than I had ever imagined I would.