My year-long Internship
My year-long Internship in India provided much-needed experience in internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, and surgery. However, after completing the required program, I wanted to gain more experience in the field I was most interested. I have always been around primary care, as I grew up with my mom in family medicine. In high school and college, I shadowed some of her partners. I saw the basics of the insides and outs when it came to dealing with patients from a wide spectrum of ages. Because of that I picked up on certain mannerisms and the proper way to approach and bring up sensitive topics. I also learned how to pose and phrase certain questions to obtain relevant patient information and establish a health doctor-patient relationship. The way to gain this experience was a clinical observership in the area of your interest.
Clinical observership.
It had been a long time since I had observed any doctor in this type of setting. Now that I was back in the States I decided to shadow one of the local doctors as a clinical observership in the Dayton, Ohio area. Over the past year, I shadowed Dr. Ahmed who is a phenomenal and very caring family doctor. The interesting thing about family medicine is that you see patients from early childhood to adulthood and eventually old age.
I find it very intriguing that you can see a certain patient from childhood and adulthood. This enables a doctor to have the responsibility and both learn and take care of a patient’s needs for all their life. This consistent patient care and outpatient care is what made me want to pursue this clinical observership, as I did. The interest and lifestyle of being a family practitioner made me want to pursue family medicine after this externship.
Family Medicine Clinical Observership
Dr. Ahmed allowed me to see patients from all ranges of age. As well, I shadowed Dr. Diller at the same office. He mainly saw patients of all ages as well but mostly he saw people of older age. Most patients I observed had problems ranging from dealing with controlling hypertension via monitoring blood pressure and medications to referring someone with a hip injury for surgery. Recently during the summer, I saw many patients with otitis-externa or swimmer’s ear. Most patients come in with either follow-up for certain problems or for acute problems. I learned during this clinical externship with follow-up problems the family practitioner deals with monitoring and prescribing or adjusting medications to deal with long-term problems.
Acute problems, such as the swimmer’s ear, deal with a basic physical exam. The solution is prescribing acute treatment with antibiotics. or a referral for therapy depending on the problem. I enjoyed my experience and the time I got to spend with the few physicians I followed. It allowed me to further explore and pursue my future career. As of now, I am going to continue observing family medicine doctors and possibly other specialties if I choose to pursue similar but different interests.