Underserved: Free Clinic & Homeless shelter

So this is a required rotation and honestly, I signed up for the site I did was because I wanted to be close to home. I also wanted to blow it off because I was so burnt out of working in places where I have to try to prove to someone every second of every moment that I belong there.... I just wanted to something chill. So I picked somethin close to home.  And my school strong armed me into this place 45 minutes away from my parents.  Its a free clinic right next to the homeless shelter, where I slept during the week--- partially.

And it was so much better than I ever could have asked! This rotation is stressful because well, any rotation during January is because that is when all medical students have our Rank List is due. (more on that in a different post).  Anyway, suffice it to say I have to sum up all the choices I have for residency.

But this place functions only on volunteers. Which means that we only had docs, what 4 days I was there. The rest of the time we had other students and the one nurse practitioner who ran the place and signed our scripts if needed.  So it was ALL me. Nobody checked behind me. I was the doctor.

It was intimidating but it also was the single best learning experience I've ever had.  It forced me to go remember what I learned and remember mistakes on the job. And the clinic was special. We didn't deal with insurance. So it means that I now know almost every medication on the $4 list by heart and where to get what medication for cheaper. I also now know the dosages for most of the antibiotics as well.  For example did you know, Albuterol inhalers without insurance costs $45.

Beyond no insurance, we also don't have nurses. So we did our own procedures. Preg tests, Urine Analysis, Blood Sugar, Vaccinations, and all the paper work that goes with it all. Its actually super helpful to know.

My favorite part was working with so many students. Nurse practitioners and PAs and med students. And we could all sorta be each other's brain trust and bounce ideas off each other and it was the kind of environment I wanted to work in!

This whole thing ended up being pretty cool, because my patients would call in and ask me questions or specially request me. I had refills and it made me feel very official.

So i decided that if i don't get into ER this year.... I will be applying for family med.  And maybe I won't be so unhappy with that....