Welcome to Real Medicine 😷

 

👌Can successfully rebut the advances of a patient in a crowded community health centre 😉

👌Can take a history and do an examination in a crowded community health centre

👌Can manage to trip while going UP the stairs 😂 (I’m still trying to figure out how that happened)

👌Can draw blood . . .  from a mannequin

👌 Can stare down a little toddler and make them smile/ cry ( She started first ☺)

👌Can put up an IV line . . .  on a mannequin

Above are a few of the skills that I have learnt in this short albeit packed week of my very first clinical rotation 🙂

I’m on “Health and Disease in the Community” aka Family Medicine. It’s supposed to be one of the less stressful rotations and that has definitely proved true over the past few days.

We have weekends off , we end before 5 everyday and some days we don’t even get started until late afternoon. I think it’s designed that way in order to facilitate the bazillion projects and assignments we have to complete along with some supervised clinical consultations twice a week at a community health centre and a home visit to a patient with a disability.

We’re learning about practising EBM ( Evidence Based Medicine). Although not nearly as exciting as watching an emergency appendectomy , I think it’s been quite fascinating to learn about.

The visits we make to the clinic are quite cool though I enjoy talking to patients , taking their history and doing examinations. It makes countless hours of OSCE preparation feel worth it. I’m still taking forever while doing that but hopefully my technique will improve in good time. The CHC is really crowded , a far cry from the luxury a patient using the private health system would experience. I’ll definitely post a lot more about this dual health care system that South Africa makes use of in the future and why it makes me so mad . (My feelings are escaping ) 

I’ve also started to see the importance of  CHC because that is the first place where the patient will arrive completely undifferentiated and they are relying on the knowledge that you have to treat them so that they can get better or refer them if necessary.

Mandatory Pre – Clinic Selfie 😘

I’ve also realised the need to be a brilliant doctor and not just someone who passes tests. It won’t do for me to pass tests without retaining that information and using that to help my patients towards a better outcome. What good is a distinction if I can’t make it useful  when listening to my patient at the primary health care level? A good deal of introspection is in order I’d say 🙂 

 

Lots of Lily Love ❤ (LOLL)