I still haven't gotten around to writing about how clinic is in general, and I swear that it's on a list somewhere. I do want to share that information, because I think it's nice to have that available as a current or even prospective ND student.
Today however, I wanted to share some information about a good day in clinic.
This past couple weeks have been a little crazy and stressful. We're 6 months into clinic, and I'm not exactly where I'd like to be with respect to my skills. Sure, I've progressed and know A LOT more than I did 6 months ago. I'm getting better at connecting with patients, providing treatment and exams. But there is a lot more that I'd like to be doing better at, and there's also a bunch of assignments and things to work on right now, so it feels like my time is really limited. I've also noticed that often when people say "Hey Noah, how's it going?" I don't respond too well, usually saying "not well." Things have been getting me down and stressed, and that's not the type of person I usually am.
Anyway, within all the stress, I had a great experience with a patient today that really brought me up and improved my mood and motivation. So a patient of mine came in for a follow-up. They weren't feeling all that well and had considered cancelling, but decided that it was a good idea to come in. Already a good sign, knowing that I am able to provide a space and care that people feel comfortable coming to. The nice thing though, was learning that treatment we had initiated last visit had provided a positive shift for them, and this was based on my own research and clinical judgment. The visit continued and we had a good plan moving forward, and I'm excited to continue helping this person improve.
Sure, this does happen a fair bit in clinic, but it's always a nice reminder when this happens, that I've got the tools and skills to help people improve.
So amidst the chaos of everything else that happens in life, I enjoy taking a chance to step back and just notice what I have done, and what I can do. After all, it's why I got into this in the first place!
Showing posts with label Clinic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clinic. Show all posts
Friday, 4 November 2016
Tuesday, 25 October 2016
Finally Here! (sorry for the long hiatus, here's a bonus recipe!)
So I never had a chance to write on the blog and indicate that I'm finally in clinic! It's been a long road to get here, with 7 years of post-secondary education, including 3 years at CCNM, over 100 exams and so many papers and practicals. But the light at the end of the tunnel is here, and I'm finally doing what I've wanted to do for so long.
I'll have to update the blog in the future with a post on what being in clinic is like, but for now, I wanted to just let you guys know that I'm seeing patients and available for consultations. I'm very interested in helping people struggling with anxiety, depression, insomnia and stress. I also help with weight loss, pain and low energy, as well as women's health concerns including hormonal regulation problems. And of course I'm interested in helping with general family medicine and helping people optimize their health, whether they're unsure about what supplements to take, which diet is best for them, how to exercise safely, and any other general concerns.
Feel free to come in for a consult, or send me a message at nlitvak@ndnet.ccnm.edu if you have any more questions!
I'm available at the Robert Schad Naturopathic Clinic at CCNM
Monday and Wednesday from 2:45pm-7pm
Friday from 8:45am-12pm (this is a focus shift on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia)
I'm also available at the Brampton Naturopathic Teaching Clinic at the Brampton Civic Hospital
Thursdays from 4:15pm-8:15pm --> this is a free clinic
Click the above links to book and just ask for Noah Litvak on whichever day you'd like. Hope to see you soon so I can help you have less pain, more energy and overall feel better!
And now, as an apology for my long hiatus, I've posted my favourite hummus recipe on my next blog post. I hope you enjoy!
Monday, 21 March 2016
Back From Another Hiatus and 3rd Year Winter Courses
So unfortunately I fell off the wagon with blogging again after Finals in the Fall semester. I can't promise that my consistency will be back, but I'm going to try to be a little more consistent again, at least until the end of the semester. And while I'm doing that, I'll try to give a bit of a recap of all the stuff that has happened this semester.
At the moment I'm busy working away at some assignments, but I did finally get something done that I've been meaning to do for weeks. I created a Facebook Page for myself as an intern at the RSNC. Oh by the way, I'm an intern at the RSNC now, that's something new for Winter! I'll write more about that in a future post, but here is a link to my facebook page, which I'm hoping to keep a little more regular than this blog with posts, at least once a week.
Now I've got to get back to my assignments, but I'll give you a quick overview of the courses that we have in 3rd year Winter.
Integrative Therapeutics 2 - This is the same idea as IT 1 from the Fall, just teaching based on the cases we do in Primary Care here, a little bit of OSCE prep, and thankfully, no big annoying paper to write!
Primary Care - As a full year course, this is the same as in the Fall, except that we switch timeslots (in the Fall I had Mondays from 2-420, so now I have 430-650), and we get a new group. In addition, there is an OSCE examination, which I had just last week, I'll write about that in a future post though.
In Office Procedures - This class has a little bit of didactic lectures, but is mostly a practical class where we learn phlebotomy, injection therapies, sample collection (urine, saliva and skin), ear lavage, and nebulized glutathione and magnesium, as well as some basic theory about intravenous therapy (this is a full continuing education course with extra certification required, but we do learn some basics).
Maternal and Newborn Care - Dr. KBT (Kimberly Blyden-Taylor) teaches this course, a great overview of care for mothers and newborns, all the way from preconception through breastfeeding.
Asian Medicine - As a continuation from the Fall, we learn more about TCM formulas, TCM theory on Western conditions and run through lots of practice cases. We also have a big research paper similar to IT in the Fall, except this one was done as a group of 4, so it wasn't nearly as time consuming.
Asian Medicine Practical - A continuation from the Fall, we do 2 partner cases where we take a case from a classmate, come up with a treatment plan for them, and then initiate that treatment plan over 2 visits. We also have several group practicals to further practice our skills in tongue and pulse diagnosis.
Manipulation - In 2nd year Winter we learned all about motion palpation and assessment of the body from head to toe, here we get to learn how to actually perform chiropractic manipulations/adjustments to fix joints that are out of alignment. Keep in mind that "out of alignment" doesn't literally mean the bone is in the wrong place, it means that joints are not moving as well as they should due to spasms and tight muscles, so we help them move with specific adjustments. And the cracking sound that you hear during an adjustment? That is not the bone cracking! It's just gas escaping from the joint as you move it.
Emergency Medicine - This course is a lot of review of Standard First Aid, something that I have a lot of experience with as a former lifeguard and camp counsellor. This is important though because only CPR level C with HCP is required to be a student at CCNM, Standard First Aid is not. So students need to get some training in emergency management. In addition, we learn about the emergency drugs that NDs are allowed to administer such as epinephrine, and we also learn about the use of oxygen. There is some full class lectures and a group assignment, but this course is mostly small group practicals.
Pediatrics - This course is focused around care for children from 0-18, looking at growth from all aspects of health including physical, mental and emotional, as well as the social connections with family and the environment. We have didactic lectures for the first half, and then after midterm (which is multiple choice), all the classes are case based where we work in groups on specific conditions in different age groups. The final is going to be open book (including computers), so I'm a little worried, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. This course also includes a "lab" component - in early January we had the Pediatric Open House at CCNM where parents brought in their children to be assessed by 3rd year students in groups of 2. We then had to also observe a pediatric appointment either at the RSNC or through some sort of preceptorship. Then we needed to write a reflection paper based on these 2 observation experiences.
Homeopathy - A continuation of last semester with focus on acute remedy prescriptions, as well as practical sessions where we work on case taking. In addition, we've continued following our live case that we saw our instructor do last semester.
Botanical Medicine - Again a continuation of last semester, just going through more body systems and also working on 2 more group cases.
Clinic - Finally, what should be the most interesting course of the semester, clinic! In this course we have 1 clinic shift on a Tuesday-Friday night (2-8pm) or a Saturday morning. I personally got a Wednesday 2-8pm shift with Dr. Ragbir, who was actually my TA in first year health psychology if you remember from this post. On the shift we get a mentor 4th year student, and follow them as a secondary intern for the semester. This means that we see all their patients with them and are slowly incorporated into the visits, helping with physical exams and intake, as well as some treatment. We can't do adjustments or injections, but we can do acupuncture if the supervisor is there. In addition, we work with our interns on charting and treatment plans as well as patient research. Unfortunately my shift and my intern specifically hasn't been that busy, but I have still definitely learned a lot from this experience so far, including from shadowing Dr. Ragbir and seeing a bunch of different patients on the shift.
Alright so that's it for today, I'm going to get back to my assignments for now, but I'll try to be back for another post soon to review some of the events that have happened this semester so far.
At the moment I'm busy working away at some assignments, but I did finally get something done that I've been meaning to do for weeks. I created a Facebook Page for myself as an intern at the RSNC. Oh by the way, I'm an intern at the RSNC now, that's something new for Winter! I'll write more about that in a future post, but here is a link to my facebook page, which I'm hoping to keep a little more regular than this blog with posts, at least once a week.
Now I've got to get back to my assignments, but I'll give you a quick overview of the courses that we have in 3rd year Winter.
Integrative Therapeutics 2 - This is the same idea as IT 1 from the Fall, just teaching based on the cases we do in Primary Care here, a little bit of OSCE prep, and thankfully, no big annoying paper to write!
Primary Care - As a full year course, this is the same as in the Fall, except that we switch timeslots (in the Fall I had Mondays from 2-420, so now I have 430-650), and we get a new group. In addition, there is an OSCE examination, which I had just last week, I'll write about that in a future post though.
In Office Procedures - This class has a little bit of didactic lectures, but is mostly a practical class where we learn phlebotomy, injection therapies, sample collection (urine, saliva and skin), ear lavage, and nebulized glutathione and magnesium, as well as some basic theory about intravenous therapy (this is a full continuing education course with extra certification required, but we do learn some basics).
Maternal and Newborn Care - Dr. KBT (Kimberly Blyden-Taylor) teaches this course, a great overview of care for mothers and newborns, all the way from preconception through breastfeeding.
Asian Medicine - As a continuation from the Fall, we learn more about TCM formulas, TCM theory on Western conditions and run through lots of practice cases. We also have a big research paper similar to IT in the Fall, except this one was done as a group of 4, so it wasn't nearly as time consuming.
Asian Medicine Practical - A continuation from the Fall, we do 2 partner cases where we take a case from a classmate, come up with a treatment plan for them, and then initiate that treatment plan over 2 visits. We also have several group practicals to further practice our skills in tongue and pulse diagnosis.
Manipulation - In 2nd year Winter we learned all about motion palpation and assessment of the body from head to toe, here we get to learn how to actually perform chiropractic manipulations/adjustments to fix joints that are out of alignment. Keep in mind that "out of alignment" doesn't literally mean the bone is in the wrong place, it means that joints are not moving as well as they should due to spasms and tight muscles, so we help them move with specific adjustments. And the cracking sound that you hear during an adjustment? That is not the bone cracking! It's just gas escaping from the joint as you move it.
Emergency Medicine - This course is a lot of review of Standard First Aid, something that I have a lot of experience with as a former lifeguard and camp counsellor. This is important though because only CPR level C with HCP is required to be a student at CCNM, Standard First Aid is not. So students need to get some training in emergency management. In addition, we learn about the emergency drugs that NDs are allowed to administer such as epinephrine, and we also learn about the use of oxygen. There is some full class lectures and a group assignment, but this course is mostly small group practicals.
Pediatrics - This course is focused around care for children from 0-18, looking at growth from all aspects of health including physical, mental and emotional, as well as the social connections with family and the environment. We have didactic lectures for the first half, and then after midterm (which is multiple choice), all the classes are case based where we work in groups on specific conditions in different age groups. The final is going to be open book (including computers), so I'm a little worried, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. This course also includes a "lab" component - in early January we had the Pediatric Open House at CCNM where parents brought in their children to be assessed by 3rd year students in groups of 2. We then had to also observe a pediatric appointment either at the RSNC or through some sort of preceptorship. Then we needed to write a reflection paper based on these 2 observation experiences.
Homeopathy - A continuation of last semester with focus on acute remedy prescriptions, as well as practical sessions where we work on case taking. In addition, we've continued following our live case that we saw our instructor do last semester.
Botanical Medicine - Again a continuation of last semester, just going through more body systems and also working on 2 more group cases.
Clinic - Finally, what should be the most interesting course of the semester, clinic! In this course we have 1 clinic shift on a Tuesday-Friday night (2-8pm) or a Saturday morning. I personally got a Wednesday 2-8pm shift with Dr. Ragbir, who was actually my TA in first year health psychology if you remember from this post. On the shift we get a mentor 4th year student, and follow them as a secondary intern for the semester. This means that we see all their patients with them and are slowly incorporated into the visits, helping with physical exams and intake, as well as some treatment. We can't do adjustments or injections, but we can do acupuncture if the supervisor is there. In addition, we work with our interns on charting and treatment plans as well as patient research. Unfortunately my shift and my intern specifically hasn't been that busy, but I have still definitely learned a lot from this experience so far, including from shadowing Dr. Ragbir and seeing a bunch of different patients on the shift.
Alright so that's it for today, I'm going to get back to my assignments for now, but I'll try to be back for another post soon to review some of the events that have happened this semester so far.
 |
| I know I've been gone a while, but hey, this owl is pretty cute right? And I'm a night owl, so maybe that's me? |
Sunday, 22 November 2015
Focus Shifts
Another pretty relaxed week this week, though focus shift applications were due on Friday, so that was a bit of a stress. The Robert Shad Naturopathic Clinic (the school clinic at CCNM) has several different focus shifts that students can apply to. The purpose is to have a focus on a specific patient population during their shifts, and also to learn from supervisors with extra training in that area. The following shifts are available at the RSNC:
Pediatrics
Sports Medicine
Adjunctive Cancer Care
Fertility/Reproductive Health
Fibromyalgia/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
I decided to apply for the FM/ME shift, so I'll keep you posted on what happens with that. The applications included a CV (I haven't made one of these in forever!), and an essay. The essay was really tough because I haven't really done a lot of personal essays. Give me a research review or a scientific paper to write, sure thing. But writing about myself, and why I want to do something and would be good at it? That is a little more difficult. So it was a bit of a struggle, but with some help from my dad (who is a pretty great writer), I was able to put something together that was pretty good, and hope it'll get me the interview. There's an interview process in December I think, or possibly early January, and we'll see what happens.
Anyway, real quick about FM/ME so you know what it is. Basically they are two very complex conditions that do not have the best diagnosis and treatment right now. Both of these conditions can be very debilitating, and pull people away from work and the things they want to do in life. Naturopathic Medicine has a huge potential to help these people to improve their quality of life, and I'm very excited about the opportunity to help these people. In addition, I want to be the best doctor that I can in the future, and I believe that the challenge of working with complex cases would be a valuable experience. Here is a quick summary of FM and ME if you'd like to read more into them.
That's all for now, and oh ya this week is actually Men's Health Week! A very important time, remembering the importance of Men's Health. By the way, it is Movember, and I did shave clean at the beginning of the month, and I'll have a picture for the blog next week to show how far I've come. Hopefully I've helped raise some awareness and money for good causes as well.
Pediatrics
Sports Medicine
Adjunctive Cancer Care
Fertility/Reproductive Health
Fibromyalgia/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
I decided to apply for the FM/ME shift, so I'll keep you posted on what happens with that. The applications included a CV (I haven't made one of these in forever!), and an essay. The essay was really tough because I haven't really done a lot of personal essays. Give me a research review or a scientific paper to write, sure thing. But writing about myself, and why I want to do something and would be good at it? That is a little more difficult. So it was a bit of a struggle, but with some help from my dad (who is a pretty great writer), I was able to put something together that was pretty good, and hope it'll get me the interview. There's an interview process in December I think, or possibly early January, and we'll see what happens.
Anyway, real quick about FM/ME so you know what it is. Basically they are two very complex conditions that do not have the best diagnosis and treatment right now. Both of these conditions can be very debilitating, and pull people away from work and the things they want to do in life. Naturopathic Medicine has a huge potential to help these people to improve their quality of life, and I'm very excited about the opportunity to help these people. In addition, I want to be the best doctor that I can in the future, and I believe that the challenge of working with complex cases would be a valuable experience. Here is a quick summary of FM and ME if you'd like to read more into them.
That's all for now, and oh ya this week is actually Men's Health Week! A very important time, remembering the importance of Men's Health. By the way, it is Movember, and I did shave clean at the beginning of the month, and I'll have a picture for the blog next week to show how far I've come. Hopefully I've helped raise some awareness and money for good causes as well.
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