Reflection
I interned with Andrew J. Stein M.D. of East Bay Hand over the summer for a total of 23.5 hours. During this time I observed Dr. Stein see patients, diagnose and treat minor orthopedic hand injuries, and sit in on a full 8-hour surgery day.
I was not aloud to actually treat the patients in any way, but Dr. Stein taught me about common hand injuries like cubital tunnel (tightening of a nerve in the elbow, which can cause pain and numbness in the 4th and 5th fingers), carpal tunnel (the swelling of tendons that flow through the carpal tunnel in the wrist, cutting off blood flow to a nerve, causing pain and numbness in the hand and fingers), arthritis, trigger finger, and tennis elbow. Dr. Stein also saw patients with hand injuries from work accidents. Many of his patients work in the labor force, and have to keep working through their healing process. I saw a lot of infected and broken fingers, and x-rays showing many breaks that had been repaired with metal bars.
The most surprising thing I observed was how much the doctors have to deal with Workers Comp. As I mentioned before, Dr. Stein sees a lot of patients that are part of the labor force. Because of the area of his practice, he also sees many non-English speakers. This is often lost somewhere along the way, and translators are not always acquired before the appointment. During the second appointment, Dr. Stein comes out of nowhere speaking fluent Spanish, then looks at my confused face and says, "You're not fluent?" He explained that any medical professional working in California must be fluent in Spanish, and should be able to understand Mongolian and Cantonese. I was really amazed by his ability to communicate with his patients in a way his translator wouldn't be able to, and it pushed me to decide to minor in Spanish in college. Another surprising element of his practice was Workers Comp. Dr. Stein explained how different insurances will label any injury as Workers Comp., which is crazy to deal with, and the patients often end up being mistreated, especially when they are non-English speaking and working in the labor force.
My favorite part of my internship was the surgery day. Dr. Stein's practice has a small outpatient surgery center in the office, so I was able to observe a full surgery day. It started at 8am, and I was given scrubs and a cap and mask, and booties!! It was very cool I kind of felt like Meredith Grey... For the first surgery they made me sit down in a stool and have a nurse guard me, because you never know if you're gonna pass out until you see a surgery for the first time. Luckily I was okay, so for the next surgery I was able to stand up and get a closer look. The first two surgeries were carpal tunnel releases, which require really tiny incisions and take like 10 minutes. The next three were cubital tunnel releases, where the stretched nerve was moved to the other side of the elbow, where it wouldn't be stretched. This was my favorite surgery, because I got to get like up close and personal with a nerve, which looks a lot more like an udon noodle than anything I've seen drawn in a Biology textbook. It was also really interesting to see the differences of the flesh of different people. One patient was a 65 year old man with diabetes, and his fat was very sticky because it was saturated with sugar. Another patient was an athletic 24 year old yoga instructor, and her flesh was very easy to dissect, because no diabetes was resent. Sorry if this is tmi, it's super interesting to me!
Hours Log
7/8/15- 3 hours
7/9/15- 5 hours
7/10//15- 2.25 hours
7/15/15- 3 hours
7/16/15- 8 hours
7/17/15- 2.25 hours
TOTAL- 23.5 hours
Journal
Friday, July 10th, 2015:
I'm writing this while waiting in the parking lot for my mo to pick me up. I just walked over to something that looked like a dead snake from far away but it was actually a rat tail braid (with a hair tie!) that had been cut off of a head. How curious. Anyways, the first week of my internship is over, and it was so fun!! I really had no idea of what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. I've gradually learned about minor hand injuries and my favorite is cubital tunnel! It's really common in women because (for some reason) we sleep with our arms all curled up, which tightens the nerve in the elbow. So if you've ever woken up in the middle of the night or in the morning with numb fourth and fifth fingers, you should start sleeping with straight arms! They make pillows you can strap your arms into if you want to be extra safe! I'm looking forward to next week because Thursday is surgery day!
Friday, July 17th, 2015:
Today was the last day of my internship and I'm sad!! I was just starting to get the hang of everything around the office. The surgery day was one of the coolest experiences of my love and it definitely confirmed my dreams of becoming a surgeon. Luckily all of the like flesh and veins and blood didn't freak me out! One funny thing from surgery is that because the surgeries are very minor, they keep the patients semi-awake throughout the procedure. So, about half way through, the patient would wake up and start talking to Dr. Stein from under the curtain. The conversations they have ranged from politics to cars to boyfriends and beyond. What makes it better is that they have no recognition of the conversation when they wake up! Going into the internship I had the intent of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Even though I found everything super super cool, it kind of seems like orthopedic could get pretty repetitive pretty fast, so I may look into another specialty.
I interned with Andrew J. Stein M.D. of East Bay Hand over the summer for a total of 23.5 hours. During this time I observed Dr. Stein see patients, diagnose and treat minor orthopedic hand injuries, and sit in on a full 8-hour surgery day.
I was not aloud to actually treat the patients in any way, but Dr. Stein taught me about common hand injuries like cubital tunnel (tightening of a nerve in the elbow, which can cause pain and numbness in the 4th and 5th fingers), carpal tunnel (the swelling of tendons that flow through the carpal tunnel in the wrist, cutting off blood flow to a nerve, causing pain and numbness in the hand and fingers), arthritis, trigger finger, and tennis elbow. Dr. Stein also saw patients with hand injuries from work accidents. Many of his patients work in the labor force, and have to keep working through their healing process. I saw a lot of infected and broken fingers, and x-rays showing many breaks that had been repaired with metal bars.
The most surprising thing I observed was how much the doctors have to deal with Workers Comp. As I mentioned before, Dr. Stein sees a lot of patients that are part of the labor force. Because of the area of his practice, he also sees many non-English speakers. This is often lost somewhere along the way, and translators are not always acquired before the appointment. During the second appointment, Dr. Stein comes out of nowhere speaking fluent Spanish, then looks at my confused face and says, "You're not fluent?" He explained that any medical professional working in California must be fluent in Spanish, and should be able to understand Mongolian and Cantonese. I was really amazed by his ability to communicate with his patients in a way his translator wouldn't be able to, and it pushed me to decide to minor in Spanish in college. Another surprising element of his practice was Workers Comp. Dr. Stein explained how different insurances will label any injury as Workers Comp., which is crazy to deal with, and the patients often end up being mistreated, especially when they are non-English speaking and working in the labor force.
My favorite part of my internship was the surgery day. Dr. Stein's practice has a small outpatient surgery center in the office, so I was able to observe a full surgery day. It started at 8am, and I was given scrubs and a cap and mask, and booties!! It was very cool I kind of felt like Meredith Grey... For the first surgery they made me sit down in a stool and have a nurse guard me, because you never know if you're gonna pass out until you see a surgery for the first time. Luckily I was okay, so for the next surgery I was able to stand up and get a closer look. The first two surgeries were carpal tunnel releases, which require really tiny incisions and take like 10 minutes. The next three were cubital tunnel releases, where the stretched nerve was moved to the other side of the elbow, where it wouldn't be stretched. This was my favorite surgery, because I got to get like up close and personal with a nerve, which looks a lot more like an udon noodle than anything I've seen drawn in a Biology textbook. It was also really interesting to see the differences of the flesh of different people. One patient was a 65 year old man with diabetes, and his fat was very sticky because it was saturated with sugar. Another patient was an athletic 24 year old yoga instructor, and her flesh was very easy to dissect, because no diabetes was resent. Sorry if this is tmi, it's super interesting to me!
Hours Log
7/8/15- 3 hours
7/9/15- 5 hours
7/10//15- 2.25 hours
7/15/15- 3 hours
7/16/15- 8 hours
7/17/15- 2.25 hours
TOTAL- 23.5 hours
Journal
Friday, July 10th, 2015:
I'm writing this while waiting in the parking lot for my mo to pick me up. I just walked over to something that looked like a dead snake from far away but it was actually a rat tail braid (with a hair tie!) that had been cut off of a head. How curious. Anyways, the first week of my internship is over, and it was so fun!! I really had no idea of what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. I've gradually learned about minor hand injuries and my favorite is cubital tunnel! It's really common in women because (for some reason) we sleep with our arms all curled up, which tightens the nerve in the elbow. So if you've ever woken up in the middle of the night or in the morning with numb fourth and fifth fingers, you should start sleeping with straight arms! They make pillows you can strap your arms into if you want to be extra safe! I'm looking forward to next week because Thursday is surgery day!
Friday, July 17th, 2015:
Today was the last day of my internship and I'm sad!! I was just starting to get the hang of everything around the office. The surgery day was one of the coolest experiences of my love and it definitely confirmed my dreams of becoming a surgeon. Luckily all of the like flesh and veins and blood didn't freak me out! One funny thing from surgery is that because the surgeries are very minor, they keep the patients semi-awake throughout the procedure. So, about half way through, the patient would wake up and start talking to Dr. Stein from under the curtain. The conversations they have ranged from politics to cars to boyfriends and beyond. What makes it better is that they have no recognition of the conversation when they wake up! Going into the internship I had the intent of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. Even though I found everything super super cool, it kind of seems like orthopedic could get pretty repetitive pretty fast, so I may look into another specialty.