It's like the first day of school! But all in a foreign language-Greek!
Today was our first day at the clinic in Greece. The last few days were spent healing from illness, settling in, and getting our sea legs. Luckily, another OUHCOM student is here with me which has made this experience way more comforting. Our preceptor met us with a vibrant hello, pep in her step, and enthusiasm to share her knowledge and experiences. We met the receptionists, nurses, social workers, medical students, and residents. Our first task was to sit in with a diabetic foot exam with the nurse and social worker. The conversation was all in Greek but we used Google Translate to pick up on bits of the conversation. This was the most impactful encounter of the day. The team took 45 mins to have a full discussion about the patient's lifestyle, medications, diet, family, stressors, and more. They developed a true picture of her life and how to best incorporate changes to control her blood sugars. They also went into extensive detail about foot care to avoid wounds. After getting a complete rundown of her life, we then observed a thorough foot exam including taking blood pressures and dopplers of her dorsals pedis pulses. They then take the ratios between them. If the ratio is higher than a certain number then it could indicate a vasculopathy. They also measured her grip strength, which apparently also has an association with extent of disease. I had never seen these procedures done before and I look forward to learning more about these procedures. I loved this encounter as it was truly the embodiment of primary care. I have never witnessed a doctor or nurse take this much time to spend truly getting to know a patient and what their barriers are. In my perfect world, I would love to carve out enough time for patients to have this type of encounter. However, our medical system would not allow for this amount of time to be taken for this kind of visit. I am also not sure if this kind of encounter is unique to this practice as I was made aware that it is a unique combination of National and Municipal physician groups. Will come back with more on this topic as it is important to me and my development as a physician.
Create Your Own Website With Webador