Preceptorship

And since Aliens is one of my favorite movies, here's an image worthy of H.R. Geiger. The stained teeth come from administration of tetracycline, an antibiotic, in utero or early childhood, when teeth are developing. This is no longer done, but it brings me to the main point of today's blog: kids.

We have a class called Clinical Practice of Medicine, or CPM, where the basics of doctor-patient interaction are taught. It's one of the three courses given the first semester, combining lecture and practice of very basic medicine in a doctor's office, or preceptorship. We are assigned in pairs to various practices around Buffalo, and, alternating the weeks, we learn how to take a patient's history, how to present the patient to the doctor, and basic procedures. The variety of doctors is limited, usually family doctors, internists, and pediatricians. Because in the pre-assignment survey I let it slip that I have no difficulties with kids (for obvious reasons), I was assigned a pediatrician in a bad part of town. And it's been a wonderful experience so far. I worried that I wouldn't have an opportunity to see or learn much, being saddled with nothing but well-child visits, but it's been just the opposite. The variety of cases in an underserved area is just staggering. To resort to an old cliche, it's never the same day twice. Even routine well-child visits bring with them concerns, or problems that the doctor has to address.