I started working for the first time as a REAL doctor last week at Salud Clinic in Commerce City. Salud Clinic is a community clinic that provides many health services to the uninsured and underinsured. I learned about Salud Clinic during my interview at PSL last January, and I knew that if I was accepted to the program, I very much wanted to do my ambulatory month there. I was thrilled to be assigned there, and showed up on my first day very nervous but very excited.
I was incredibly surprised when I arrived. I had naively expected the clinic to be run-down since it cares for patients with little to no insurance. It's actually a beautiful new building with incredible facilities! It's clean and gleaming from the exam rooms to the front desk, and everyone that works there is so friendly. I spent my first few days with Dr. Melendez, a Mexican-born family medicine physician who has practiced in Colorado for several years. After greeting me with a warm smile and a handshake, she said "Well, I'm going to throw you to the wolves...go see your first patient." And I was off. I spent the first two days of internship seeing patients on my own with Dr. Melendez reinforcing my assessments and treatment plans. Almost every patient is only Spanish-speaking, so I have enjoyed the additional challenge of not only seeing patient on my own but conducting the history and physical in Spanish. It's great practice for Miami!
The next week I was with my assigned attending, Dr. Layne Bracy, because he had been out on vacation my first two days. He is a very kind, young family medicine physician quite new out of residency. He is smart, fun to work with and loves the outdoors as much as I do. He made it a point to take me to the rooftop of the clinic my second day to show me the view of the mountains to the west. He has a pretty similar teaching style as Dr. Melendez, and was very encouraging of me being autonomous in seeing and working up my own patients. His patients obviously love him very dearly, and I've enjoyed watching their interactions. The nursing and medical assistant staff at the clinic have become my new best buds: a group of twenty-something sassy Latinas who are tons of fun and love to joke around with me.
I've definitely seen some interesting cases this week:
-Hypo-pituitarism
-Severe cutaneous abscess
-Pneumonia
-A woman convinced of being pregnant despite two negative urine pregnancy tests
-A young girl with a huge area of fluctuance on her scalp...denied trauma but had a very odd dynamic with her father who was in the room
There have definitely been the run-of-the mill hypertension and diabetes cases as well, and I've gotten to do a few procedures (suture removal, aspirating a cyst, etc.)
I'm very much enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the clinic and the wonderful people I am privileged to work with. I will be working there until July 22nd, after which I begin internal medicine wards at Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital.
I was incredibly surprised when I arrived. I had naively expected the clinic to be run-down since it cares for patients with little to no insurance. It's actually a beautiful new building with incredible facilities! It's clean and gleaming from the exam rooms to the front desk, and everyone that works there is so friendly. I spent my first few days with Dr. Melendez, a Mexican-born family medicine physician who has practiced in Colorado for several years. After greeting me with a warm smile and a handshake, she said "Well, I'm going to throw you to the wolves...go see your first patient." And I was off. I spent the first two days of internship seeing patients on my own with Dr. Melendez reinforcing my assessments and treatment plans. Almost every patient is only Spanish-speaking, so I have enjoyed the additional challenge of not only seeing patient on my own but conducting the history and physical in Spanish. It's great practice for Miami!
The next week I was with my assigned attending, Dr. Layne Bracy, because he had been out on vacation my first two days. He is a very kind, young family medicine physician quite new out of residency. He is smart, fun to work with and loves the outdoors as much as I do. He made it a point to take me to the rooftop of the clinic my second day to show me the view of the mountains to the west. He has a pretty similar teaching style as Dr. Melendez, and was very encouraging of me being autonomous in seeing and working up my own patients. His patients obviously love him very dearly, and I've enjoyed watching their interactions. The nursing and medical assistant staff at the clinic have become my new best buds: a group of twenty-something sassy Latinas who are tons of fun and love to joke around with me.
I've definitely seen some interesting cases this week:
-Hypo-pituitarism
-Severe cutaneous abscess
-Pneumonia
-A woman convinced of being pregnant despite two negative urine pregnancy tests
-A young girl with a huge area of fluctuance on her scalp...denied trauma but had a very odd dynamic with her father who was in the room
There have definitely been the run-of-the mill hypertension and diabetes cases as well, and I've gotten to do a few procedures (suture removal, aspirating a cyst, etc.)
I'm very much enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the clinic and the wonderful people I am privileged to work with. I will be working there until July 22nd, after which I begin internal medicine wards at Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital.
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