Inside Out

Clinic has begun! Yesterday I worked with Dr. Oss in Hillside, our every day clinic. As soon as I showed up, he handed me a stack of papers and said “these are your first patients.” The autonomy was amazing. I entered the room to a small family of a husband, wife, and two children. One by one I addressed their complaints. I examined the children and checked their lungs and heart. I found otitis media in one of their ears and an irritated throat in the other. I continued this until I felt comfortable with the diagnoses I had found. I called the doctor in and he confirmed my suspicions. Then I wrote up their notes and even prescribed their medications! (The doctor of course checked it over but I still felt an amazing sense of responsibility). The family received their medications from the pharmacy and thanked me dearly. I quickly fell in love with clinic. I felt like a real practitioner! All my studying and book knowledge finally had somewhere to thrive. My theoretical patients were right in front of me! And I had the ability to care for them. That connection was one I always strived for and I finally felt it. I had so much joy and love for these people I didn’t even know. But maybe that’s because they were MY patients.. and this was what a patient-practitioner relationship felt like. Today we went on a mobile clinic. A few of us set out in a van through the town to a local village. We bumped along the dirt roads until we reached a bunch of children making their way to school. Shortly after, we pulled over to a small cement building to set up our clinic. I saw patients in the same way today; assessing their complaints, diagnosing, and consulting with the doctor. The patients were a little poorer and in worse condition than the ones that came to the established clinic, but they were just as sweet as ever. We had a translator help us with some of the creole that many of the patients spoke. I worked on my patient relationship building as well as working with a translator. I told myself to reach out a hand to the children and to guide the elderly. I often squeezed a patients shoulder like I saw our Dr do. These little things are what make a practitioner compassionate and tender in my mind. I constantly remind myself of the genuine and sensitive type of PA I desire to be... and today I strove to be that person with ever shoulder squeeze. Overall, this experience is already amazing (beyond wondering through the jungle of a foreign country). I am building up my clinical skills exponentially. Every day is a new opportunity to grow in a million different ways. I hope to never loose that feeling when a patient’s pulse is in my hand or my stethoscope is on their chest. It is not as if we are two people with two different roles trying to communicate. It is like we are one being, striving to build a wonderful life from inside our bodies out.