First day flying solo

Last Tuesday was the first day of running the Sharewood Project (the free, Tufts, student-run, health care initiative outside of Boston) as the Administrative Director without the help of the previous board members. Within the first hour of the clinic opening I had already apologized to roughly 25 patients in the waiting area - Great start to my year? Yep.... awesome.
Because of a misinformed decision that I made, the patients weren't able to check in and be triaged until after the clinic had opened - this meant them waiting in a long line and setting the entire schedule of the clinic back over 30 minutes. When your peers are counting on you, it's one thing, and when attending physicians are expecting things to run smoothly, thats another, BUT when patients are counting on you, there is an entirely new element added to the equation. The patients are the element that trumps everything else. It felt terrible to have the first 30 minutes of the night gone to hell.

What I learned: Apologize, always. In health care I will be running late almost all the time and it doesn't matter why, it is always my fault. I will be taking blame for being late the rest of my life. Even if it is one minute and entirely not my fault, it is still my fault. This is part of building a patient report, and being a good healthcare provider.

After my first night, running around non-stop, feeling overwhelmed and constantly being asked questions, I realized a few things. I know that many students take part in the Sharewood Project to improve their history taking and diagnosis skills, to develop their leadership skills, or to just "do good" in the community around their medical school. I can appreciate this, but at the end of the day the real reason we are there is for the patients. Many of the patients that come in have no insurance, and if they do they probably can't afford the bills from a medical appointment, or blood work, or STI testing or a flu shot or other vaccines... That means that we are the only health care they may have. This is why I'm no where near satisfied with the state of clinic. I fear some of that patient-centered sentiment and attitude being lost when many of the board members don't show up to clinic because there is an exam that week.

It's amazing to me that some how what I did as an undergrad and after graduating (working with the UW Dream Project has been directly translated to experiences in medical school. Back then it was how is what you are doing going to help more high school students get into college? Now the mantra has changed... but not much. Instead of helping students, it is, "How is what I am doing going to best serve the patients and give them the best health care possible?"

This tuesday will be the second week of running Sharewood. Hopefully things run more smoothly and I get home before midnight this week...


LASTLY, IF YOU ARE GOING TO PURCHASE SOMETHING THROUGH AMAZON.COM, PLEASE GO TO THE SHAREWOOD WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE AMAZON LINK, THEN BUY WHAT YOU PLAN ON BUYING ON AMAZON. USING THE LINK ON THE SW WEBSITE WILL GIVE US 6% OF THE SALE (it will note affect the cost of what you purchase, just help fund the clinic). THANKS!!!