Thursday, October 29, 2009

Family Practice

I am in a rural, under-served area now with a doc who has been here for 26 years. He has his own, sizable practice, admits to the small local hospital, is the county health department's medical director, sees patients in the nursing home and the county jail, plus he covers the ER a couple days a week. I am staying in a trailer in the country where there is no internet and the TV doesn't work. We got a foot of snow last night so we didn't have too many patients come in. Unfortunately he is under the impression that students can't write in the chart so I don't get to do any documentation. Plus he does a LOT of workers comp which he has to see in their entirety so that cuts back more on what I get to do. He is a great doc who is very thorough and he spends 20-30 minutes with each patient. But that means we often aren't done until 10 pm. I wish that since i am putting in all this time I could do more, and in turn learn more. Well, I guess I'll just have take as much away from this experience as I can squeeze out of it.

I am driving back home tomorrow so I can go trick-or-treating with my boy. I sure do miss him already.

2 comments:

w said...

Hi P,

I had a question... did the school help with finding you a place to live, or did you scope it out on your own?

-p- said...

The school works with a state-wide system that finds accommodations for students during their rotations. It is free, and often the quality of housing is modest to put it lightly. If you don't want to live where they set you up to live then it is up to you and your checkbook to find something else.