Practicum, v2.0

I'm one week into my second practicum. I've gotta say, it's pretty sweet. Not only am I getting to practice physical exam skills, but my histories are getting to be reasonably complete. On top of that, I'm working on the peds floor. I haven't had much practice working with peds patients or their medical problems, so this a good chance for some exposure. Also, it forces me to figure out ways to work with difficult children who will have none of my poking and prodding for physical exams.

One thing that sucks is taking so long to do anything. A full history and physical (H&P) should probably take about half an hour. As of right now I'm hovering at an hour...and it's not even a complete physical at this point (incompetence related). Writing up an H&P takes even longer at this point. My H&Ps are done in a bit of a scattered fashion, so it can be hard to organize everything into a logical presentation. And between not being completely done with all our classes and not having much clinical problem solving experience - it takes a long time to come up with differential diagnoses and defend them.

It's pretty cool to work with kids, even if some aren't so cooperative with physical exams. Friday, I worked with a 2 week old newborn. Not gonna lie, he was ridiculously cute and I kinda wanted to steal him for a bit. That aside, he was insanely cooperative with the physical - probably moreso than even any adult. Beyond newborns, it's fun playing with the younger kids and getting them to agree to be examined. I let a four year old play with my reflex hammer to see that it wouldn't hurt. She proceeded to go to town on my hand - with the pointed end. But at least I got to check all her reflexes after that. And at least her family was amused.

On an unrelated note, some of the commutes have been shitty. It's about a nineteen mile commute which should take about thirty minutes. Twice last week that's blown up to a ninety minute parking lot commute. Once because of a pileup and another time because of unplowed roads. On a winter road related note, there are shitton of potholes around Chicagoland now. One of them ended up giving me a flat. It wasn't even a real pothole...just a widened expansion crack between lanes. Uncool. Especially when having to change a tire in 20° snowy weather in shirt and tie. Doubly uncool when one of my friends ripped his pants helping me change the tire.

Traffic aside, I'm not looking forward to practicum ending. I'm actually getting some useful (IMO) clinical experience and practice. On top of that, the residents are pretty helpful and good teachers. The entire experience is surprisingly useful, well-run, and low stress. Me likey.