Blog Post: 3/29/16

Recently, I have started shadowing a doctor who works at an urgent care center run by an insurance company, Cigna. However, even though it is run as Emergency Room, there are a few difference. One is that they don't accept many emergent cases as in an ambulance does not arrive and deliver someone with a gun shot wound who is bleeding out. Instead, people come into the waiting room and prove that they have the insurance needed to have them undergo medical care. Now, here is the actual flow of the urgent care center. 

First, patients come in and provide their information to a nurse at the front. She then checks their insurance, observes their issues and processes their paperwork. After that, they get a wrist band and are brought into see another round of nurses. These nurses then do a very important and sacred job: they triage. Basically, they look at the patients issues, blood pressure, other health issues and assess how problematic they might be and how in danger they actually are. After that, they write up a chart for them and put them in one of two rooms. One room is simple with all the general amenities of a general physicians clinical room. The other room is like a hospital room with heart monitors and an oxygen supply. Then, after that, the doctors get the chart and are able to see the patient and provide curative measures such as medication or run labs. 

Now, what is cool about this urgent care center is that it has its own lab and they are able to run some of their own tests. This is very practical because they can do what they need to do as fast as they can. The operation itself flowed really well and it seemed as if things went very smoothly throughout the day. The doctors and the nurses together work in unity and with great spirits. Overall, it is an awesome and fun environment that is exceedingly efficient and beneficial for the patients. It really is a great experience and opportunity. 

Blog Post: 3/18/16

I am finally back in America after spending just a little bit over a month in France. Wow, what a trip! I learned so much during my time with Dr. Godart and really reenforced my want to become a medical professional (however, not in rural areas). I realized how often rural doctors are forced to work and was shocked by the sheer number of patients and problems she had to face on our daily basis. 

Now that I am back I will embark on the second part of my research project which is studying the different mechanisms of American urgent care and the patient care it creates. I really wanted to just compare the habits of these two practices and found that this type of medical care would be best to compare to rural medicine. This comparison will allow me to really gain a full, well-rounded picture of what exactly rural medicine entails not only for the patients but also the doctor.

I, also, think its important to understand the trends that are happening in both urgent care in large cities (such as Phoenix) and in rural medical care. In urgent care, more and more doctors are pouring into these emergency departments because it seems exciting and fun whereas more and more doctors are pulling away from or leaving rural areas because it is too much work. Also, medical students are opting to not go into rural medicine because they think it will be boring. However, it really isn't at all with different patients coming about everyday with different complex problems to solve. 

So, anyway, today I am meeting with a doctor who I will shadow through urgent care and will be able to observe her moves and tactics for care. She will be my most direct link to American urgent care and I am super excited to work with her in her medical center. Lets hope it all goes well! 

Thanks all of you for reading. I loved my time in France and hoped you could experience some of it through my blog posts. I'll tell ya'll how the other shadowing goes.