Where do we go from here? Part 1

   Even though I'm busy studying for midterms (they are creeping up!), I still decided to go to the NMSA seminar tonight. Where do we go from here? is a 3 part seminar series they are holding to help students get a grip of the future and be aware. I think it's a great idea --> it's easy to get caught up with school and studying and all that, but in the end, we're here to become doctors and go treat people. So it's definitely great to hear about experiences of people who are actually doing it.

   The first part of the series was Interns, and that was tonight. We were in classroom 5 (though I went to classroom 4 at first and was worried no one was there, I guess because 99% of first year is in that room I just assumed!), and there was a fair amount of people, though it seemed like most of them were in third year. They also had pizza which was pretty good, though a lot of people showed up so I only got one piece.

   Anyway to the point! So basically there was a panel of about 10 fourth year interns that talked about their experiences in the clinic and answered lots of questions. There was pretty good representation of fourth years, with interns from all four of the specialty shifts and several of the satellite clinics. They also talked about externships, though none of them had done one at the time, and may not be doing that anyway.

   So I'll talk more about some of these in the future, but here are all the current shifts available for CCNM interns:

Regular Shifts:

Monday 2:45pm-7pm
Tuesday-Friday 8:45am-7pm
Saturday 8:45am-3pm
Sunday closed

Interns work during these shifts with all kinds of patients. They have about an hour of "preview" at the beginning (meet with supervisor and all co-interns on the shifts --> go over some of their current cases and what they plan to do, make sure it is okay with the supervisor; get all paperwork and everything in order), see patients for 4 hours (I think a max of 4 patients at RSNC, satellite clinics and externships can see more depending on the situation), and then "review" (go over what they did do in their big groups, maybe learn about specific topics from their supervisor like HIV, vitamin D, anything relevant).

Specialty shifts: These are limited so only people who really want them do it. They also limit you from doing the one month externship

Sports Medicine --> focus on athletes, lots of nutrition and musculoskeletal stuff (this is where I actually see my intern since I always get hurt!)

Pediatrics --> working with kids anywhere from a day old to 18 years old (the parents actually stay in the room for most of the visits, but you are treating the kid --> great for preventive health care!)

Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome --> really great shift helping people that in many times, conventional medicine and mental health professionals give up on and tell them it's all in their head, when really it is quite physical and we can do a lot to help them

Adjunctive Cancer Care --> very intense shift, great learning opportunity, and get to help with IV therapy (supporting patients, we can't learn parenteral therapy until we are licensed I think)

Satellite clinics: (all of these are free for patients, and generally a very different income bracket so treatment can be a little different; dispensories are available but based on donation so a lot of it is acupuncture, physical medicine and counselling)

Parkdale Community Health Center (Queen and Dufferin)

Sherbourne Health Center (Toronto) --> a lot of work with patients who have HIV

Anishwabe Health Toronto --> a lot of helping patients who are Aboriginal

Queen West Community Health Center (Toronto)

Brampton Civic Hospital --> really cool integrative learning clinic --> the first and only naturopathic clinic within a hospital (but there will be more soon I'm sure!)

LAMP Community Health Clinic (Etobicoke)

Externships:

So you can do an externship for one semester that is 1 day per week --> this may be with an ND who is from your hometown or out of the city or something, but this is during regular shifts as well

You can also do a one month externship in August, November or Februrary --> some people take this opportunity to go to their hometown in Canada (we can't currently go to the US for insurance reasons)

Thats all for now, time to make lunch for tomorrow and then off to bed before another day of midterm studying (woo...)

Front desk at RSNC. I like how the walls are a brighter colour, compared to some medical clinics that can be a little too white (the bright colour keeps your mood up!)