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.