Monday, March 30, 2009

Rural Medicine, Day 1.

So, in an unfortunate bout of insanity, my program director has exiled me in a tiny hovel in western PA for the week to shadow the docs at one of my hospital's satellite clinics. Apparently the experience is supposed to make me want to become a family practicioner. So far it is not working.

The doctors and clinic staff are nice enough, though the hospital they take call for is a bit of a joke - 8-bed ER, 6-bed ICU, 3 ORs...it makes me miss my state-of-the-art home hospital. The first two hours of my time here were spent in an excruciatingly long orientation session, in which the coordinator literally went over EVERY SINGLE PAGE of the guide book. I was desperately trying not to claw my eyes out by the end. The only good news is that I get unlimited food at the cafeteria. The downside is that the cafeteria has limited hours and an even more limited selection of food items. Thank Zeus I'm only here until Thursday night.

Anyway, the clinic stuff was pretty boring as well. There were a few "well child" visits, in which the physician assured the nervous parents that their kids were perfectly average, health-wise. There were a few OB-GYN visits, which were so boring I had to pinch myself to keep from falling asleep on my feet. Honestly, how many PAP smears am I going to have to watch this week? I sense many more long hours of staring at funky vaginas. Yuck.

I could go on, but I won't, because I realized midway through the afternoon that any remotely interesting or complicated cases are immediately referred to specialists. It's easy to get the impression that these docs treat a huge variety of illnesses, but the truth is that they really aren't trained to handle people who are a really, really sick. I've pretty much given up hope that I'll see anything more than what I saw today.

I was offhandedly invited to observe a c-section in the hospital tomorrow morning, but since I'm tired and cranky right now, I'm probably going to pass. I need to gather my strength for another long clinic day. Bah humbug.

1 comment:

  1. "funky vaginas" --- you made me snarf my herbal tea...

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