Update
So it is now almost April. The current term is over. I am one more term closer to graduation and completing this huge task.
This term has been chaotic to say the least. I have been treating patients in the clinic since January. My groups is one of the busiest and this term all the groups have just a few interns, so we were busier than most. An average week for me is 16 patients in the clinic and 5 at the West Burnside Clinic (the free clinic supported by the school). I have to get 265 patient visits before Sept 19. In the past 10 weeks I have well more than 150 visits. For the mathematically challenged that comes to well over 50%. I still have 23 weeks left. I don't think that I will be having a crisis of visits when it comes time to tally mine. I am on a tear to have close to 500 visits before I am done. This isn't going to last I am sure. In a few weeks there will be 5 or 6 new interns to share the visits with, and they will be anxious to get their visits. But at the same time the exiting interns are turning over their patients as well. So there will be plenty of patients to go around.
A quick side note. The other groups haven't had the history of the patients that our group has. This past summer and fall, when there was a inflated number of interns in the clinic, someone brought in a Nintendo game cube for the intern lounge. As some interns had lots of free time on their hands and decided that playing video games was the thing to do. Dr R, when she saw the system, asked what it was, and when it was explained to her, she laughed and said 'none of my interns have time for that kind of thing...' And she isn't kidding. My time in the clinic has been anything but idle. I have not had more than a few moments of idle time in the past 12 weeks. Not nearly enough to boot, load and play one game.
Don't get me wrong, I am glad to be in the group I am in, and I am glad that I am busy. I like the idea that I will have close to 500 visits before I am done. The more visits the better doc I will be when I get out. I don't understand the students who want to get to 265 and stop. They are done. There is nothing more that they can learn from seeing more patients? And the patients still need to be treated. Just because you have your requirements met, doesn't mean that the patients don't still need to be treated. The patients are coming to the clinic to get treated, not to provide you with your graduation requirements. That was what the Student Health Center was all about. Students treating students so that we can become proficient enough to treat the public. Now that we are treating the public, it shouldn't be about getting your requirements and then quit the patient. It should be about providing care for the patients that have provided you with the opportunity to learn and practice your profession.
Now if I could just figure out where I want to practice when I am done.
This term has been chaotic to say the least. I have been treating patients in the clinic since January. My groups is one of the busiest and this term all the groups have just a few interns, so we were busier than most. An average week for me is 16 patients in the clinic and 5 at the West Burnside Clinic (the free clinic supported by the school). I have to get 265 patient visits before Sept 19. In the past 10 weeks I have well more than 150 visits. For the mathematically challenged that comes to well over 50%. I still have 23 weeks left. I don't think that I will be having a crisis of visits when it comes time to tally mine. I am on a tear to have close to 500 visits before I am done. This isn't going to last I am sure. In a few weeks there will be 5 or 6 new interns to share the visits with, and they will be anxious to get their visits. But at the same time the exiting interns are turning over their patients as well. So there will be plenty of patients to go around.
A quick side note. The other groups haven't had the history of the patients that our group has. This past summer and fall, when there was a inflated number of interns in the clinic, someone brought in a Nintendo game cube for the intern lounge. As some interns had lots of free time on their hands and decided that playing video games was the thing to do. Dr R, when she saw the system, asked what it was, and when it was explained to her, she laughed and said 'none of my interns have time for that kind of thing...' And she isn't kidding. My time in the clinic has been anything but idle. I have not had more than a few moments of idle time in the past 12 weeks. Not nearly enough to boot, load and play one game.
Don't get me wrong, I am glad to be in the group I am in, and I am glad that I am busy. I like the idea that I will have close to 500 visits before I am done. The more visits the better doc I will be when I get out. I don't understand the students who want to get to 265 and stop. They are done. There is nothing more that they can learn from seeing more patients? And the patients still need to be treated. Just because you have your requirements met, doesn't mean that the patients don't still need to be treated. The patients are coming to the clinic to get treated, not to provide you with your graduation requirements. That was what the Student Health Center was all about. Students treating students so that we can become proficient enough to treat the public. Now that we are treating the public, it shouldn't be about getting your requirements and then quit the patient. It should be about providing care for the patients that have provided you with the opportunity to learn and practice your profession.
Now if I could just figure out where I want to practice when I am done.