Tomorrow is the first day of my last month at Seattle Children's. As much as I love my job, I was a little worried that after I let my P.I.'s and project coordinators know I was leaving, that I would have somewhat of a working-girl "senioritis". You know, that "I'm-so-antsy-just-get-me-outta-here" feeling?!! But quite the contrary... I've found myself to be so incredibly busy that the thought of leaving doesn't even have time to cross my brain.
Currently, I'm working to help wrap up a study called the Neighborhood Impact on Kids (NIK) Study. What NIK aims to investigate is how neighborhoods within the King County area affect the health of children, with a special focus on the role they play in childhood obesity. We look at a lot of obvious things that would affect a child's health, such as what their diet consists of (as well as their parent's diet) and how much physical activity they get on a regular basis. We also look at not-so-obvious factors, such as what fast food restaurants are in the area, how expensive healthy food options are, how readily available parks and recreational spaces are to children, and sidewalk quality/pedestrian safety. Until I began working on this study, I had never really thought about how much our surroundings affect our health; it's given me such an enlightened understanding of just how many factors play into our ever day overall well-being. Medicine is SO much more than just diagnosis and treatment. It's been such an honor to be part of the research team for this study and can't wait to see the results published!
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