Thursday, August 05, 2004

well its Thursday and I have finished my first week at my new part-time job. I am a certified medical assistant at the clinic in Sheridan MT. For those of you who may not know Sheridan's population is 700. The clinic functions with one MD or PA on staff at all times and sees between 3-15 people in a day. Tuesday we saw 3 and Wednesday we saw 13 and I now have a new understanding of rural medicine. Its not quite as bad as when Granny from the "Beverly Hillibilies" doctored anyone and I like to think that its better than when Ellie-Mae doctored her animals but it definitely is a wee bit different than things were in either Spokane or Chicago. That became extremely evident when I had to go over to the hospital to get my vaccines and have a RN get them out of the fridge for me because I am not allowed into the hospital fridge but yet that is where they keep my clinic supplies. It also became quite apparant that things were different when I had to go over to the hospital to get Nitroglycerin for a heart patient and the RN in the hospital had to look in two places before she found the bottle. "Toto I dont think we're in Kansas anymore." I must admit I understand why the meds are kept in the hospital, they have the fridge, but it seems to me it would make more sense to get a second fridge. They are however considering changing the x-ray dept from regular films to digital. Does this seem odd to anyone else but me? Wouldnt you want to upgrade the rest of the facility first and then worry about the big changes. I mean heavens-sakes the suction machine broke on Tuesday and any of you who have watched ER know that you need a suction machine to intubate. They are looking in to buying a refurbished one from yep you guessed it, E-bay. Meanwhile my next day to work is on Monday and I will be working in Twin Bridges which is 8miles away. I asked for directions to the clinic, and I kid you not, the directions were "take the hard road (for those of you not living in rural America that would be a paved rd) and turn right way before the blinking light. If you go to the bank you gone to far and youll need to turn around. After you turn right then you turn left at the next street and it a brick building about halfway down the block". Someone else said "Geez thats the long way, just go down the hard road turn into the post office parking lot and go to the back of the parking lot and then go into the back door of the brick building at the back of the post-office's parking lot." Apparently the post office parking lot backs up to the clinics back door. Is it any wonder if I will actually make it to work on Monday with directions like that? Well time will tell. Have a great week and for those of you not in rural America, sit back and enjoy a book. Its too expensive to go to a movie anyway.

3 comments:

Jane Ellen+ said...

My brother-in-law says that it's logical to put the clinic next to the post office. that way there's medical aid available when someone "goes postal."

Hang in there, sis-- at least you don't sound bored. (^_^)

Dawgdays said...

Look on the bright side - you get to see more of the town if you get lost.

By the way, congrats on the new job!

The Lovely Wife said...

Thanks for the encouragement. Glad to know people are reading this!