Serena Paul

PROPOSAL:
During the early parts of my childhood, I was diagnosed through a colonoscopy with
Pancolitis, a rare inflammatory bowel disease where the entire large intestine is inflamed after
being unable to properly digest food. After knowing I had this inflammatory bowel disease, I
was often heavily depressed because of the physical aspects of the disease as well as the mental
aspects of the disease. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are stomach disorders where different parts
of the intestine are either inflamed. However, in my case, I was diagnosed with pancolitis, which
affects the entire large intestine. As I progressed through middle school and high school, I often
pondered over the thoughts if all inflammatory bowel disease patients felt the similar thoughts as
I did when enduring through my illness. Upon being in this program, my hypothesis was is there
a correlation between a child or teenager with inflammatory bowel disease and depression rather
than someone who does not show symptoms of this disease. After reading many scholarly
journals and interviewing my gastroenterologist, Dr. Kaplana Murthy, I have come to the
conclusion that children and teenagers are at a higher risk of major depression upon having an
inflammatory bowel disease. Ultimately, the outcome of my research will be teaching Anatomy
and Physiology students who are going to the medical field as their careers about inflammatory
bowel diseases, the correlation between depression and inflammatory bowel diseases and how to
assess patients with inflammatory bowel disease. The intended audience for this project will be
targeting Anatomy and Physiology students. As a result of this work, I will not only bring
awareness about inflammatory bowel disease, but teach students who are going to the medical
fields how to properly assess their patients because often times when going to a physical or
checkup, the patient is asked how they are feeling physically, but are never addressed about their
mental health. Upon completing my project, I will first have to talk to Mrs.Carr, the Anatomy
and Physiology teacher about my lesson plan for her approval, then fill out a lesson plan
template. After completing the lesson plan template, I will have to present this to Mrs.Bagley or
Mr. Drechsler for approval and then email the lesson plan template to Mrs.Carr.