Sleeper Room 19, Chariton update

So it's been awhile longer since I've updated on my life in Chariton (for those of you who missed that one - I'm in Chariton, a town of about 4,000 for 4 weeks to do my family medicine rotation). It's been a really great experience. I love the patients and the doctor I'm working with is really good. He's very knowledgeable and incredibly current on all the recommendations. He's also very into electronic medical records, which has worked out well for me as he's been anxious to teach me to use their system. I have to say it's a pretty easy system to learn to use. He has allowed me to have my own laptop so I can write the notes on patients I see. He then reviews the note after we see the patient together and signs it. It's been really nice to be able to have the experience of seeing clinic patients and making sure all the notes get finished - a little better taste of what it's really like to practice medicine. Plus it gives you more ownership to know that you're going to be the one writing it up. Let me take a moment to explain a couple of camps of education - there are some people who think that "shadowing" is a valuable educational experience and that you can learn more from watching an experienced physician than from doing it yourself. Yeah, that's a total cop-out for people who don't want to be slowed down by educating students. I have extreme hatred for this attitude, especially at the university. When you are employed at an academic institution part of your job is education. Anyway, I digress, I actually do think there is benefit to some shadowing - you truly do learn by observing - you get the opportunity to see how different clinicians talk to patients, the questions they ask, which physical exam aspects they perform, etc, but eventually you have to just try to do it yourself. I mean it's crazy to think you could learn to be a good basketball player by watching a bunch of games but never touching the ball!! So my point of all that is - it's great that he has allowed me to see patients myself and write the notes. I feel like I'm getting better. It's also nice to finally be at this point in my third year because I feel like I am able to ask the right questions most of the time, my presentations are getting better, I am getting a lot of practice in physical exam stuff. I have actually heard heart murmurs on my own without knowing they were there - for anyone who has tried to listen to a heart, you know this is an accomplishment :) Ok, the lessons of med school is another post... back to Chariton.

I thought you all might like to see how I'm living these days... so I present to you: Sleeper Room 19.
Coming through the door

Looking to the right at my desk (sorry kinda dark but there's a desk there!)

Looking to the left alittle at my TV (it has cable, so I'm content!)

Looking back toward the door (the door to the right is my half bath)


There you have it! I have a communal shower - well I mean shared... we don't all shower together! Then there is a kitchen with a stove and such next door to me, so that is nice! I also have a mini fridge in my room, so that is good for snacks. I store the rest of my snacks in the top dresser drawer :) Ok, the other awesome thing here is the lack of scrubs... here's a view of the pair I found that "fits"! Don't worry, I pulled them up for the benefit of this picture - in reality I sagged them quite a bit and left my shirt untucked so they weren't quite this bad (but it was close)! Wondering what we wore scrubs for? We had a c-section Tuesday! I didn't get to see any on Ob/Gyn, so this was my first. Since it was my doctor's patient I got to scrub in, which was fun. Got to cut the cord, too, which was also fun :)


Ok, I'll end with that! I'll write a wedding update soon... finally moving forward on that! yay! Hope you're all having a good week!! Love Andrea
PS- Speaking of weddings, my parents celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary April 12th! Happy Anniversary! Hopefully we'll be doing the same in 2042!