Physician Shadowing
Nov. 5, 2017
This past week I got the chance to shadow an urgent care doctor.
The urgent care was a clinic in Belmont, NH (~1 hr north). It was an interesting area to be a part of for the day. I have shadowed various specialties from peds. to rehab docs, but not anything like this. The atmosphere was very light, and everyone was extremely friendly. The physicians who worked here were retired E.R. doctors who still wanted to practice, but in a less high-intensity setting.
While following them, they had a very well laid out plan. The nurse would check in the patient, the doctor would assess and treat, and the nurse would go back in to discharge the patient. Everything flowed very smoothly. One nurse I talked to a lot discussed how it was important to know how each physician works and what they expect, but that the physician must also be aware of what the nurses do. This helps prevent errors from occurring.
For me, this related well to a lot of our class discussions, but it is essential for communication in healthcare for everything to go as planned. This clinic was an excellent example of this. Everyone discussed their opinions and what they believed may be going on. No patients stayed longer than ~25 minutes, depending on their situation. It was succinct and easy to manage.
I really enjoyed the overall culture of this clinic, and I felt that they expressed excellent healthcare better than most of offices I have shadowed in. The physician did not down play the nurses' jobs and the nurses respected the physician. It was a friendly environment, and I am looking forward to go back to shadow again.
This past week I got the chance to shadow an urgent care doctor.
The urgent care was a clinic in Belmont, NH (~1 hr north). It was an interesting area to be a part of for the day. I have shadowed various specialties from peds. to rehab docs, but not anything like this. The atmosphere was very light, and everyone was extremely friendly. The physicians who worked here were retired E.R. doctors who still wanted to practice, but in a less high-intensity setting.
While following them, they had a very well laid out plan. The nurse would check in the patient, the doctor would assess and treat, and the nurse would go back in to discharge the patient. Everything flowed very smoothly. One nurse I talked to a lot discussed how it was important to know how each physician works and what they expect, but that the physician must also be aware of what the nurses do. This helps prevent errors from occurring.
For me, this related well to a lot of our class discussions, but it is essential for communication in healthcare for everything to go as planned. This clinic was an excellent example of this. Everyone discussed their opinions and what they believed may be going on. No patients stayed longer than ~25 minutes, depending on their situation. It was succinct and easy to manage.
I really enjoyed the overall culture of this clinic, and I felt that they expressed excellent healthcare better than most of offices I have shadowed in. The physician did not down play the nurses' jobs and the nurses respected the physician. It was a friendly environment, and I am looking forward to go back to shadow again.
I have two teenage boys so I spend a lot of time in Urgent Care, can I come to your clinic and get out in 25 minutes? You emphasize the communication aspect to an efficient office. I don't think that can be stressed enough, if each person in the process is aware of what the next person does it greatly effects the quality of the work and the happiness of the people doing it. This is just my 2 cents doing Lean/Six Sigma projects
ReplyDeleteI would say that from my time at the clinic, there were rooms with 3 patients all hoping to get strept tests. These rooms still were emptied with ~30 minutes. It really was a smooth, effective facility.
DeleteGood for you for seeking this kind of opportunity.
ReplyDelete