July 25, 2010: Week 2
My second week at the hospital went a lot smoother than the first week. This was my first week being the only intern, as the previous intern left last weekend. My Spanish has been improving, and I am able to pick up on new words and phrases quicker now. I have even started making conversation with the patients and the patients’ mothers also (even though my Spanish is still a little broken – but understandable nonetheless). Since I am becoming more efficient in triaging, I am able to shadow the doctors a little more during their exams of the patients. It is interesting to see/hear the thought process of the doctors as they try to come up with a diagnosis. I was also able to follow the doctors on their rounds as they checked-up on the newborns. I learned how to fill out the charts for the newborns and how to do a physical exam on the newborns. The doctors are really helpful and nice about showing me interesting findings and deformities. There was one baby that was in the uterus too long. As a result, his skin was dry and “leathery” because the placenta dried out. After being in the clinic, seeing patients that are least a month old, it was nice to see newborns and their diagnoses. After being in this clinic, I have started considering of specializing in an area of pediatrics. I really like kids, especially the well-behaved kids. There is the occasional child that is afraid of everything and screams all the time. However, all of them are really cute and I can definitely see myself working with kids in the future.
Outside of the clinic, I am still teaching ESL classes and helping English-speaking students with their computer studies. We have moved onto reading comprehension with the English-speaking students. For the ESL classes, we have started on complete sentences and various aspects of introductions, such as names, birthdays, age, likes/dislikes and where they live. Along with working with kids in the clinic, I have discovered that I like teaching a lot. It feels good imparting knowledge to those who are hungry for it. Lastly, I am doing a little bit of research into breastfeeding. Coming to this island and seeing a lot of malnourished children, I am interested in the breastfeeding patterns of the mothers here. Along with my triaging, the Dr. Quinn and I are asking questions about breastfeeding, especially if the child doesn’t eat and/or is underweight. Hopefully with enough data and surveys, I can put together a presentation at Clinica Esperanza or give the information to the social workers at the hospital by the end of my internship.
