Developing a Scientific Worldview: College, Medicine, and Beyond

Developing a Scientific Worldview: College, Medicine, and Beyond

Joeseph Manring

Southern Utah University

Capstone: Biology of Disease

December 9, 2016

I spent several years after graduating high school doing work related to music. I wrote, performed, and, most importantly, provided lessons. One of the most important parts of playing an instrument, especially when it comes to percussion, is the ergonomics involved. When you’re surrounded by musicians you start to realize how frequently injuries happen because they’ve developed bad habits, so that was always one of the biggest things that I stressed to my students. I had friends who didn’t make technique improvements until after they had to go through surgeries, and that really played a part in encouraging me to study more about how the body works. On the other side of that coin, there are plenty of people who lose a portion of their normal physical functionality due to trauma and they have to find a new way to keep playing or give it up altogether. Once I saw it through my narrow scope, I really appreciated how difficult life can be after an injury, and the cost associated with surgery afterwards. Working with people who were travelling that road played some part in realizing that I could make a much bigger impact in helping them if I went into medicine. That’s obviously only part of my motivations, but we all started somewhere.

Before coming back to college, I was as ignorant as it gets as to how a scientist thinks, and how their methods work. I’ve always been pretty logic driven and mechanically inclined, but the culture shock is pretty unreal. Innate ability does very little for you, and much more value is placed on the amount of time and dedication you can place into your field. A scientist works incredibly hard to develop understanding and no matter what ability you started with, if you’re still here and getting  ready to graduate, you learned that fact somewhere along the way. I think that this is the biggest part about our development into scientists. We work, study, and discover to keep advancing our knowledge because we cannot rely on our “base” comprehension or ability. Work hard. Learn as much as you can. Keep moving forward, and don’t assume that what you knew when you started with was the only logical (or even, correct) way to look at the world.

Once I graduate from SUU, I want to go into medicine. Advancements in this field are strongly tied to scientific development and as a result, science will always be a big part of my life. Every medicine, procedure, and advice that I give to a patient will be scientifically and logically driven. We understand how to do the most good for our patients because scientific methodologies and analyses help us to do so. I may not use every part of what I learned here (it was an awful lot) but I know that I built a foundation for myself to stand on in medical school and beyond.