Rotation #1 McMinnville, Oregon

My first rotation was in a small rural town about 40 min SW of Portland.  I decided to commute for the 6 weeks to keep my place, as well as my friends and social life.  I worked four days a week w/ 10 hr. shifts.  3 day weekends baby.  Can't exactly remember how I spent them, but it was sure delightful.  The clinic I worked at in McMinnville was the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Clinic and targeted at the migrant farm workers from Mexico w/out insurance.  It was definitely an underserved population, which my school is big on.  About half of the patients I saw were Spanish-speaking so it was nice to be using my Spanish again!  That was definitely my favorite part about the rotation.

I was a bit frustrated during the first week of my rotation because I was mostly observing my preceptor and not getting to do a whole lot.  My responsibilities progressed, though, through the weeks.  Looking back, I actually had a lot of opportunity for history taking, performing the physical exam, and charting the notes.  I wasn't involved too much on the prescribing process or the process on the next best step, but it was my first rotation.  What do you expect?  I expected more actually.  It turned out fine, though, and I developed some great skills, a safe place to start out my clinical training.  I averaged seeing about 10 patients of my own a day, plus observing another 5-10 of his.  Even though, I didn't appreciate it at the time, I'm actually quite glad I got to observe so much to see how my preceptor approaching things and what to say in certain cases.  I think it was a great learning experience.  Other classmates of mine didn't have that opportunity.  It was also great experience in knowing what to do next when the patient does not have insurance.  We did not have the luxury of ordering any lab test or imaging to help diagnose the problem.

Let me tell you.....when I found out I was going to McMinnville first, I was extremely disappointed.  All I wanted to do was go out of state somewhere.  But, when the time to leave Portland came closer, I found I was actually really sad to leave.  I have loved it here.  More on that next post........

P.S. The reason for the airplane on the roof picture is because McMinnville is known for its famous Air and Space Museum.  This particular plane is actually the start to a few water slides that go down into a waterpark.  I never did make it to the museum, and it was only 2 blocks from where I work!