Office Visits in Surrey

Start of a new term means new office preceptors taking us on for our family practice FMPR course. Leslie (my partner) and I are posted at a small walk-in clinic in Surrey under Dr. Baker. For those of you who aren't familiar with British Columbia, Surrey isn't rural, but it's quite far away from the city centre of Vancouver. Med students always say that they get to do more and see more when they're out in more distal cities during office visits. And it's true. Without having a slight idea about doing any clinical skills such as palpations and prostate examinations, Dr. Baker just threw us in there and guided us along on the fly. I learned today IPPA upon doing abdominal exams. Inspection, Palpation, Percusion and Ausculation. I observed pitting edema, auscultated for crackling sounds in the lungs an indicator for congestive heart failure and gave a 3 month old baby a shot. I felt the liver upon palpation on an adult and the kidneys on the baby. A lot of things on the first day and I'm glad to have Dr. Baker and the other friendly staff at the clinic.

At the end of the day, Dr. Baker told us that one of the challenges that comes with being a primary care physician is that of sometimes accepting the role as a faciltator for the health of patients rather than adamantly forcing patients to comply with a particular treatment or set of actions. It would be extremely hard and fustrating to "clean" someone up with a slew of medical problems including alcholism in particular circumstances. In that case, as primary care physicians, we can only do our best to minimize and eliminate potential suffering that would make life a lot more difficult for the patient to bear by treating what is easily treatable and most importantly, working with the patient in a way as to gain their cooperation in this process.