Day 4

I had a great day today. I asked Jess if I could follow her today thinking I would just stand to the side and watch her, but she had me do hands on work. For the first two patients I just observed her take the BP, pulse, temperature, eyesight, hearing test and initial questions. The third patient was a 46 year old male complaining of pain in his neck and chest likely caused by stress. Once Jess called him back she said, "Carly will be taking care of you today until Dr. Komenda is able to see you". I was so nervous of messing up. I began by having him sit down to I could take his blood pressure, which was high, and his temperature. I then took his height and weight and led him back to Room 4. Thankfully Jess followed me- I was definitely not ready to be on my own. Using what I had learned the night before I asked him various questions and recorded them so Dr. Komenda would have something to go off of when he got into the room. Because of the chest pain we ordered an EKG and then had Dr. Komenda go in for the consultation. The next patient I had was a two year old little boy with a terrible cold. Dr. Komenda asked us to give the patient a shot that would help strengthen his immune system. I rubbed his thigh with an alcohol cloth and held down his legs so Jess could give him the shot. It broke my heart seeing him so upset. It was very hard to hear and watch. For lunch a drug rep brought Cafe Max. On the plus side the food was great. On the down side the presentation sucked. I now know why doctor's don't like drug reps. After lunch we were incredibly busy. In hopes of saving time, Jess had me take a 31 year old male patient- by myself. On his chart it said he was complaining of pain and when we looked into the waiting room he was rubbing his neck. After putting two and two together, we decided it would be handled just like the patient I had before. I took his BP, height, weight, temperature and led him into Room 2. After a few minutes of basic question like if he smokes or drinks I asked him about the pain he was complaining of. He told me that for the past three days his right testicle had really been hurting him. I thought I was going to die. I asked him the same questions that I asked the patient with the neck pain but applied it to his area of pain. When he asked if I wanted to take a look at it, I was quick to say no and took that opportunity to leave the room and let him wait for the doctor. After that I was not willing to see a patient alone and stayed with Jess the rest of the day. I was having such a great time seeing patients I stayed an extra two hours! I guess time really does fly when you're doing what you love!