Day 1362: Saturday Free Clinic

While trying to maintain posting-momentum, I wanted to write about my experience at the Saturday Free Clinic last week.

In case you all don't remember, I did not get the position to be a manager of the Saturday Free Clinic. At first I felt fine about it. Then angry. And then it all quelled and I had bigger things to focus on (like staying in medical school, haha). Anyway, after that awful week of exams, I had clinic the Saturday after. And this is how it went...

Usually first-year medical students get paired with a second-year medical student. The first year (aka M1) does the interview (hi, what brings you in today? etc etc). The second year (aka M2) performs the physical. An M3/M4 does everything again. Then the three students present to an actual physician, who then goes in to actually see the patient and address whatever issues the patient has. Most M1/M2 pairs see two patients a day.

Well! There were too many M1s so I volunteered to go by myself! You've all met me. I like nothing more than embarrassing myself and my father has slowly engrained in me that whatever I don't know, it's okay! I don't have to know everything. I can't tell the patient that of course, haha, but I can tell them I will confer with the doctor (which always seems to put them at ease). Long story short, I was by myself (and was awesome, duh) and saw three patients! I got lucky because my patients weren't very difficult (back pain, a physical and some bodily malfunctions (mainly a cough) that I wasn't uncomfortable with).

The entire experience reinvigorated my desire to stay here. It gets hard when you know the material and then your exam score doesn't demonstrate that. But being in a clinical setting showed me how great I am with patients and as long as I can stay afloat, I'm going to be a great doctor. Yay for joyful posts!