It has been an interesting week in the clinic so far. Our first day involved a fair amount of orientation. Mindi and I were assigned our own little chair in the clinic. So, if you come to visit us, chances are we will be working in chair E7...our home for the next year.
We have a pretty sweet set-up. We are right next to the x-ray room, near the carts that contain lots of supplies, and near the professor's office so most of the things we will need most are practically right at our fingertips. We are also close enough to the windows to get some good sunlight, but not the Arizona heat that pours in.
For the first 2 weeks, our regular clinic partners have been split up and we have been temporarily re-assigned to work with a D4 who can show us the ropes. I've been working with Jackie this week, and she has been great. Honestly, the trickiest part is figuring out the computer and the program it uses. The clinic is paperless, so all of the charts and things get entered electronically. I scan my badge over a sensor near the computer to log in to access the charts of the patients assigned to me. Then I need to figure out how to enter all the data that I find during an exam. Then there are about a million tiny little places that you need to click to have the patient sign or initial the proper forms and consent. Then there are a million more places where the professor has to scan his badge to approve every little piece of information I enter. It is pretty confusing. Thankfully, Jackie has been super patient and super helpful with me learning the computer.
Interacting with the patients has been the easy part. Most of them have been super nice and super understanding about me being new and being pretty slow. I've spent a fair amount of time doing initial comprehensive exams so that Mindi and I will have our own set of patients once we start working together again next week. It already looks like I will be doing some fillings, a root canal or two, some crown preps, and maybe even an implant. And I only have 4 patients!
There have been some pretty funny patient stories floating around the clinic already too. For example, I had a patient in her 70s that came in and told me that she is looking for the perfect man. I told her that I was looking too, so she spent a fair amount of her appointment pointing out every cute guy that walked by. (And between the D3 and D4 classes, there are quite a few attractive people. Unfortunately, most of them are taken.)
(Note: I really have to be cautious about what I write here to ensure that I am staying within HIPAA regulations. My classmates and I have to be super careful that we are not talking about patients in public locations and that we NEVER reveal identifying information. In the near future I may need to start requiring a log-in to read my blog. I keep hearing the stories about the teachers that got fired for writing about students on their personal blogs, and it makes me a little concerned that something I write, no matter how innocent or well-intentioned, could be used to jeopardize my education and future career. So if it ever seems I am being vague, keep in mind that I am doing it to protect my patients.)
Yesterday, we had our "bridging ceremony" in which we officially made the transition from the pre-clinical portion of our education to the clinical portion. In the ceremony, we went and thanked our pre-clinical faculty and went down a line shaking their hands. Then we were given a certificate and box of business cards before being welcomed by all the clinical faculty (with more hand shaking). Then there was cake. Now I am legit. Here is my business card.
The other great thing about clinic how little class time we actually have. There are only 4 hours of lecture per week! That means I have to spend far less time actually hitting the books. This first weekend was chock full of guilt-free free time. Quick weekend rundown...
On Friday night, I went to the "Zumba party" at my gym. The Zumba instructor is auditioning to be a character in the newest Zumba video game, so we filmed her audition tape. Here are 3 of the videos from that they filmed during class. I am somewhere towards the center/right side of the room when you look at the back wall, in the back, behind some people, wearing a pink tank top if you want to try and see some of my bad dance moves. (This first 2 videos show dances that are more fun, but the 3rd video has a flashy introduction.)
After Zumba, I went to the movies with a friend. He wanted to see X-Men: First Class and since I am a closet fan of the superhero movie genre (and I think James McAvoy is a cutie), I was more than obliged to go see it too. It wasn't too shabby for movie in which the villain is played by Kevin Bacon.
On Saturday, I went to the nearby waterpark with a bunch of friends. We bought season passes (that were on sale in the spring and were very reasonably priced) so that we could try and beat the heat this summer. It was a little bit different than any other waterpark I have been to before. There were some large areas where there were lounge chairs for people to sit and relax. It was strange because the entire lawn area under these chairs was made of astroturf. People were spreading out their towels and relaxing on plastic grass. It was weird. Most of the park is also covered by huge expanses of tarp to provide shade from the glaring Arizona sun. (We do have one of the highest rates of skin cancer here.) People tried to stay in the shade as much as possible. It is just SO HOT. The pavement is too hot to walk from slide to slide or even from pool to your chair. Most people wear their flip flops everywhere and are even allowed to take them down the slides. That was a big NO-NO at the pool where I life-guarded when I was a teenager. Next time I will definitely remember to bring my watershoes because I did burn the soles of my feet.
On Sunday, I went to go see the 25th anniversary tour of the muscial Les Miserables. A group of 20 of my classmates got a block of tickets. The show was fantastic. Afterwards, we went to dinner at La Bocca Urban Pizzeria and Wine Bar. My friend Monica and I shared the pear and goat cheese salad and a sicilian pizza. Both were delicious and went well with my sangria!
I will definitely drive out to Tempe again to see more plays...especially because the musical Wicked is coming next February. It is my absolute favorite musical and I would LOVE to see it again.
And that is the news for now. Hope you enjoyed this media filled post (pictures and videos and links galore)! So now that I have spent most of my evening typing up this post, I think it is high time I start getting ready for bed. Buenos noches!
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