Hello once again! I can’t believe that this is Week 5, and that we’re already halfway through! I’ve slowly been coming back to full energy, and was on site for the full time this week. It was a very busy week, and I saw more than 15 patients.
But this week when I shadowed Dr. Barker, I was not alone. She had a student (named Heather) from Western Osteopathic Medical School completing a short clinical rotation at the practice as well! Whenever we entered a patient room, Dr. Barker introduced us as her “entourage”, as 4 people fill up a small visit room quite easily.
Getting to talk to and learn alongside Heather was so fascinating, as she is just a week away from Match Day (March 17th, the day around the world where 4th year medical students are told where they will be completing their residencies), and I’m just starting this whole journey as a pre-med undergrad student. Seeing her interact with patients was interesting as well. Even though every doctor has their own “bedside manner”, I could still recognize Heather’s Osteopathic training in her approach to care.
She gave me so much amazing advice, from how to survive pre-med undergrad, finish 9 hour board exams first year (yay testing), or stand through 6 hour surgeries without passing out (a lesson she learned the hard way after hitting the floor after about 4). Heather applied for Pediatric Residencies, and starts them in June. I can’t wait to hear where she’s headed, and was so grateful to have this little glimpse to my own future.
This week I also began to read some of the papers from the Women’s Health Convention! I only just started though, and have much more to go. I started with the recommended preventative screening standards this year, and the major one that’s changed is the screening test for cervical cancer, a pap smear. It was previously recommended annually from age 21-30, and then from age 31-65, every 3 years. Now, it is recommended every 3 years from age 21-65.
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| Except not 3 years more like 10 |
A possible reason for this decrease in screening is the fact that the presence of the HPV (the virus that causes cervical cancer) virus has severely decreased in the last several years due to the use of the Gardasil (HPV virus) vaccine. Thus the incidence of cervical cancer has also decreased (aka the vaccine is working and we are making great progress towards completing preventing cervical cancer!!)
So those are my highlights from this week. Thanks for reading; I’ll be back soon with more!
