So I’ve been back from Tennessee for just a few days, and like last year, I miss it and everyone terribly.

My last week was as good as all the others, save for the one crotchety patient (my last patient!) who didn’t want a student.  The staff gave me a really lovely sendoff-Kimberly, my friend from the front desk, bought me roses, which rode all ( Read more... )

So last week I sat down with Jada, the head of the health center.  I told her that I was definitely interested in coming down here to work at REACHS when I finish school next year, and that I wanted to find out what the application process would be.  She replied, “Well, we were hoping you would come, so you just have to fill out the paperwork.” So ( Read more... )

This week has been pretty packed.  I had a few really interesting cases at the clinic.  Here are the semi-paraphrased versions of my notes for two that I thought were most impressive (and exciting).  I took out some of the medical lingo-but left most of it.  If you don’t want all the details, I sum it up and add a little bonus info at the end of ( Read more... )

Hey Yall.

Week 2 has been great.  Last weekend Alayna and I went to the Smokies for a great 8 mile hike.   After that we headed to Sevierville (Dolly Parton’s home town) for the Bloomin’ Barbeque and Bluegrass festival.  That was loads of fun and loads of calories, but awesome after a long hike.  Alayna even got a picture with Dolly (well, her ( Read more... )

For our journey so far in pictures, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/shana.kaplan/Tennessee2008

This has been a whirlwind of a week and I am loving it!

To refresh, I came down to Tennessee last summer through the National Health Service Corps Summer Search program, a federal program that sends nurse practitioner, medical, dental and physician assistant students to medically underserved communities to shadow someone in their future ( Read more... )

Hey everyone!

Thanks for reading again this year.  I am finally back in Tennessee for another 5 weeks, and so happy to be back. I've come back to do a clinical rotation for school credit.  I've kept in touch with my nurse practitioner Mary and Sheila (the nurse practitioner I work with a bit last summer who works mainly in the local school clinics ( Read more... )

Look I made the news!

http://www.tnpca.org/documents/Summer2007_000.pdf

So I hadn’t planned on keeping my journal past my time in TN, but I feel that I have not let go of my journey down there so I don’t mind keeping it up. I probably won’t write very often, but if something seems like it fits here, I will certainly jot it down. I don’t even know if anyone still looks at this. I am also going to try to clean up the ( Read more... )

A few random yet useful tidbits I learned:

• Body Mass Index=(Weight in pounds X 703)/(Height in inches, squared)
• Lots of stuff about pharmacology, which may not even apply when I am prescribing, because meds change so often.
• Poison ivy is only contagious when you come in contact with the oils from the plant.  Once you wash off the affected area, it ( Read more... )