Blog Post: 4/18/16

Hey guys! This week has not been very busy or as hectic as they have been in the past. Talk about a much needed break! 

So, recently I have been working on my Senior Research Presentation, which has been quite difficult. What I have been doing a lot of lately is doing a lot of research, trying to assemble my different points and observations as to make some concrete points on the matter. I, as everyone else does while doing research, have run into a few different problems. For instance, as you all know, I shadowed a French rural doctor and not an American one. This is problematic because a lot of the research I am doing is centered around the problems of American rural medical professionals. 

One way I have found to solve this is by just using the research on American Rural medicine and also just general on rural medicine. I then just describe the basic differences between French and American medicine to show the that there are not as many differences as we think. Hopefully, this along with some more research I did on global rural medical practices, I can have a more full study of rural medicine and be able to compare it to American Urgent Care. 

Anyways, I know this blog post was not exactly all about the science or patient care of medical practices but I hope it illustrated to you a little about my research quandaries. Thank you for reading!

Blog Post: 4/8/16

So, once again I have spent more time with Dr. Mohty who is the medical professional that I am shadowing while trying to fully wrap my head around the American Medical system. Things are pretty complicated and there is usually a lot going on at the same time but I having a lot of fun. I am also, of course, learning a lot so all is quite good.

Now, I have really talked about the flow a lot of this urgent care center because I truly think it is fascinating and cool. I mean, in the rural areas, there was a lot more disorganization because so many things were happening so fast. She was so busy that we didn't have time to really arrange a lot of things before they happened. We were also so on the move and always exhausted from working all day that we did not really spend a lot of time organizing different things.

However, I did spend a better portion of my time with her organizing certain medical documents in alphabetical order. First, I separated the exam results to letters sent by colleagues which depict what that patient went through with that doctor such as a cardiologist appointment or a surgery. After that I properly threw away all of the medical tests that were over a year old. Then, after that I put the medical tests in alphabetical order and sorted out the letter by date. After that I put them all in special files, and stowed them away. Also, if we are speaking on organizing, I organized the entire medicine cabinet as well.

Thank you for reading! Keep it cool in the sun.

Blog Post: 4/3/16

Welcome back! I have been shadowing my urgent care doctor in America now for a little and I am really in awe of how much she seems to manage. Not only is she the lead physician at the urgent care she is also a part of this company called PediatriX which works in pediatric centers around AZ. I believe she is stationed at the Honor Health on Shea and usually works night shifts. Then, to top it all off, she is also an associate professor at University of Arizona Medical School. All the while she has managed to be married to a hand surgeon and raise four boys while staying sane. I honestly cant picture how she is able to juggle it all. 

Now, one thing I noticed while I was shadowing Dr. Mohty at her urgent care center, is how much more advanced there system of medical record and assignments is to those in rural areas. For instance, when a doctor sees a patient he or she must then write several notes about their symptoms, progress, medication etc. However, they must write these notes in a certain extended fashion several times in different places. At the rural medical practice or any of the other sites in Puget, the doctor I shadowed had to write in everything by hand several times which really extended the process and made everything happen at a much slower pace. It obviously was not her fault at all, it's just she didn't have  the technology available. 

Also, in the urgent care center I am in right now, they have a flow of accepting patients and treating them as I have described in the previous post. They also have a system of lights which tells them when a patient is in a room or requires aid. They also have an arsenal of nurses which helps them with several tasks and a series of steps on where to put a patient and how to draft a document to cure them. These kind of resources are not available to rural medical professionals who instead have to work with swamped nurses and almost no flow in the hospitals. This makes their jobs much more challenging as well as strenuous. 

So far this has been a very interesting few weeks and I look forward to continuing my shadowing, research and comparison. Thank you for reading!