Pediatrics in Humboldt

Much to my dismay, I am close to the end of my pediatrics rotation in beautiful Humboldt County. My preceptor is Dr. Ted Humphry from the Open Door Clinic, and I would often shadow Dr. Wirthlin and Dr. Heise when Dr. Humphry was out of the clinic. Having all three of them to myself was amazing- no other students or residents with whom I needed to compete for their attention. It was nice to see their individual methods of blending intuition with medical knowledge. I would go to the clinic every day for outpatient experience, and in the mornings I would make inpatient rounds. I was also called in at all times of the day to watch and eventually participate in C-sections and make rounds on inpatients.

My favorite part of this rotation was when I got to see patients on my own. I would take a brief H&P, report with my assessment to the attending, and then we would go in together to close up the visit. I also wrote SOAP notes after some of them- totaling about 2-3 per day. The only downfall of this rotation was not having Internet access. I had to wait until I got home to work on quizzes. I am going to miss the people of Open Door Pediatrics in McKinleyville and the physicians with whom I rotated. Not only were people courteous and welcoming, but they helped advocate for my ability to learn and participate in patient care.

I will also miss Humboldt County- such a beautiful place with fresh air, a slower feel, and might I say, tons of great food. I will be back, especially since I have much more north coast left to explore!!!

Next stop, SOMA Fall Convention, then OB/Gyn at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton. So far I have been away from the Bay area for 9 weeks and it won't be another 7 until I can finally call it home base again. I have missed Walter terribly, but thank goodness for g-chat with cameras and the fact that this place is only 5 hours away. We saw each other every weekend of my NMM rotation, and every other weekend during my pediatrics rotation. I thank him for being endlessly patient with me. Thanks for reading- don't hesitate to message me if you have any questions on how to rotate in Humboldt, leave a comment below if you don't have my contact info.

Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine in Humboldt

In case there are any 2nd years who are still actively reading my blog, I wanted to share about my NMM/OMM rotation with Dr. McCaffrey in Humboldt.

She practices OMM at her clinic, called Redwood Osteopathy. She takes PPO/HMO/Medicare patients, and she has the MediCal patients come to the Student Clinic, where you take a history/physical, create an assessment and plan (including treatment), present to Dr. Kate, and then treat. I found it to be exactly like suitcase clinic, but you take care of the visits on your own (unless someone is rotating with you, in which case you could see the pt together if you wanted) If you are uncomfortable doing this on your own right off the bat, you can let her know and she will be happy to have you observe for a couple of visits before you jump into it.

You also help her with the intake and follow-up visits for non-MediCal patients- you take notes onto the computer for her and help her treat, sometimes you go in with the patient and start taking the history/physical and present to her. You'll see 5-8 patients per day,sometimes more! It's good, solid work and I not only learned new
treatment techniques; I experienced continuity of care. Its nice to see how patients do after you treat them! I also feel like my hands have turned on again, if that makes sense- I had not practiced much OMT between May- Aug before the rotation.

Dr. McCaffrey also teaches you about billing/charting/EMR, and how to run your own business. As far as hours are concerned, Tues, Weds, Thurs you are there for about 9 hours each day with a long lunch break, then on Friday its a half day (3 day weekends!). There is a compassionate pain management group that she has students join during their time at the clinic to get an idea of how facilitated groups
work. This is a beautiful group and you might be surprised at how much you learn about yourself and others during the short meeting. The office staff and medical massage therapists who she supervises are very nice and like to share knowledge during in-services. You can also trade OMT/ medical massage with them ;)

I'm still in Humboldt- now rotating with Dr. Humphry, Dr. Wirthlin, and Dr. Heise for inpatient/outpatient peds. I literally have all 3 of them to myself! If you are interested in rural medicine or peds and you want to know more about this rotation just let me know. Dr.Humphry is the director of the Open Door Clinic and loves to teach medical students. It is a very loving, educational environment.

Humboldt is very much in need of people from our generation to come up there to practice since many of the current physicians will be retiring within the next 5-10 years. This is why they really want us to come up there and they make sure we get the special treatment- a good education and friendly interactions.