Day 4: Shadowing

This is my last day of shadowing. I went to Dr.Traina's office in the Diabetes Center today. She had two students there Anne and Matt. When I first came I went right to Dr.Traina's office but had a surprise waiting when I saw a patient was in there with someone I didn't recognize. It turned Matt was taking care of a patient while Dr.Traina was overseeing Anne meeting with another patient. So I sat a bit in the waiting room after texting Dr.Traina to let her know I was there. When Dr.Traina did come out she led me back to her office where Matt was still with the patient and told to wait outside. As I watched from the door the interaction between Matt and Dr.Traina made me think back to all the times I had a student teacher. Matt was taking over the patient's visit like how student teachers take over a class for a day. After the patient had left Dr.Traina explained that Matt and Anne were on their second week with her in the office. At this point she said they were supposed to start to become independent so that she could work without needing to look over their shoulders. I watched Matt and Anne write up their notes.  After seeing a patient it is required to write notes which contain what was discussed, for which doctor or nurse practitioner does the patient belong, and if a patient needs to come back why. Matt wrote this down but Anne had to write a additional part since she changed the medicine doses the patient was on. Dr.Traina would give pointers while watching them. One interesting advise she gave that if there is time in a visit to get to know the patient so they are more compliant to listen to you. They were learning to use a program called CareConnect which is the computer system that contains all the patients' information. Before the students saved their notes Dr.Traina would check them to make sure they are not too wordy or not specific enough. After typing up her notes Anne left to go to the library which is really just a room with one computer and some shelves of books. Dr.Traina called back a patient who she missed the call of that morning about calcium pills. The patient wanted to take less of these pills but Dr.Traina said he couldn't because he has a very serious case of pagets disease of the bone. This is when bones turn over and re-form too quickly so the bones are weak. This particular patient had it in large bones so he had to take the dose of pills he was on. After the call Dr.Traina typed up a note about it. Dr.Traina left to get her laptop which left just me and Matt. Matt made a call to a patient telling her to bring in all her medications for her next visit. Matt and I talked a little bit. He apparently knew a few Thomas teachers and Mr.Armstrong from Spry. Both Matt and Anne are on their last year of pharmacy school he told me. Last year students have to work in a office for their last year like Dr.Traina's. When Dr.Traina came back she had Matt email a nurse practitioner, Jane, about a patient who had to lower doses of one of their medicines, a blood pressure medicine, due the bad interaction it was having with her other medicines. But now the blood pressure medicine isn't as effective so Matt emailed Jane to let her know of this. Both Matt and Dr.Traina made a few more calls to patients. Anne came back from the library. The three hours went by rather quickly and before I knew it was time to go. This is the end of my shadowing. It leaves me with a lot to think about when it comes to my career choice.
The board of famous people with diabetes in Dr.Traina's office is below.