Family Medicine

I guess my kids actually love me.



So the rotation known as family medicine has ended. Let me preface any further comments by saying that I initially dreaded this rotation. This, in my mind, was to be the second worst rotation of the year, the first being geriatrics starting in two days. Despite my preconceived notions, I actually enjoyed the rotation. Don't worry folks, I didn't like it so much that I am changing my mind about ophthalmology - that is unlikely to change. I still hold that geriatrics will likely suck.

So what made family medicine somewhat enjoyable? A few things. The first was my fellow student. His name is Jon Chung, a 40-year old Korean-American who, after working as a psychologist for awhile, decided to reenter school and become a psychiatrist. With his age and former experience, he has a story to tell about every situation. You would think he was more like 60 years old, but looks thirty. He's just a very eccentric person and fun to work with. Since we were working down in Pine Bluff, we carpooled about three days a week. The 45-minute car ride provided ample opportunity to talk about our past lives as less productive members of society.

Secondly, we had autonomy down in the Bluff. From the very first day, we were seeing patients on our own, presenting them to the residents, and then working with the residents on a treatment plan. It actually made us feel like we were a more useful cog in the line of medicine. We were able to tell patients how stupid they were for coming to the ER for a two-year rash that was itching and required a work excuse (which we didn't give, pointed to the door, and said, "Get the f**k out!"). We never worked with the same resident two days in a row, which was great since no group of residents is perfect. There were those we chose to avoid for one or another reason, but this isn't the point of the discussion. The attendings were nice; they felt the need to actually teach us a thing or two.

Thirdly, we didn't have to do a lot of OB/Gyn. Let me explain. I worked at an AHEC, the so-called Area Health Education Center. There are several of these in different regions of the state, and other states have a similar program. Our family practice rotation distributes its students to the different centers. The only real disadvantage is that every site is a little different. At some sites, the students do a lot of OB, or a lot of inpatient internal medicine, or whatever. At Pine Bluff, it's all clinic, no OB/Gyn, and some ER. I liked the OB/Gyn rotation OK, but I didn't want to keep doing it elsewhere for four more weeks. I think I only had to do a couple pelvic exams.

The one unpleasant thing about the rotation was the last day, yesterday, and all the busy work leading up to it. After most classes/rotations, we take what is known as an NBME exam, the National Board of Medical Examiners exam. These are standardized, nationalized exams which take over two hours to go through and over three weeks to get scores. OK, so I am used to that, whatever. But after a break for lunch, we had to come back to take a lame 16-question quiz. How cruel is that? After the exam, we all had to give our presentations over an article to show that we still know how to analyze research data appropriately. Everyone's presentation was way too long. I've never had a last day of the rotation last so long.

Coming soon: a post of pictures.