Mike and Carly: the Big Apple, the Bronx, & the Start of Clinicals!

After a fun month of engagement celebration, parties & gatherings with friends, and time with family back in MN, I moved out to New York City at the beginning of July to start my first clinical rotation - Family Medicine at Bronx Lebanon Hospital!

The big move out to NYC was a little bit stressful, but I am SO lucky that Mike's cousin, Jean, has graciously let me stay with her in Manhattan during my first rotation. Not only did this take the weight off of me having to find a place before moving out, but it also allowed me to NOT have to get a short-term place in the South Bronx (which is super sketchy!). Mike's two cousins, Anne & Jean, who live on Manhattan, have helped me so much with the transition from Minnesota to New York and they have been so nice to include me in their plans and show me around NYC! It has been so fun!

My first rotation, Family Medicine, at Bronx Lebanon has been very intense but great! I have learned SO much and I have seen things I would never see in other parts of the USA. The area of the South Bronx is interesting to say the least... For those of you who don't know, the South Bronx is one of the poorest areas of New York and they have an incredibly high rate of homelessness, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS, and teenage pregnancy. Working with this type of population has been very educational. It has also been a test to work in this area because it is not the safest area and since I commute from Manhattan each day I have had to stay alert and confident when walking from my subway stop to the hospital each day...but don't worry, I have been safe each day when walking....it just takes some getting used to to work in such a different area. And lucky for me, I met a great friend, Samina, in my rotation who takes the same subway route as me into Manhattan each day, so we commute home together at the end of the day, and having a friend makes it much more comfortable to walk through the sketchy Bronx! We have also had fun hanging out together on Manhattan on our rare days off!

Just to give you some more information about the 6 week Family Medicine rotation, here is how it was broken down:

*Weeks 1 & 2 = Inpatient: During my first two weeks, I was on the inpatient floor (a hospital floor with 40 beds). Our hours were 7am - 7pm plus my commute was an hour each way so the days could get pretty long, but I learned SO much and the patients were really great! Each student was assigned to a Resident and each morning we had to find the charts for our Resident's patient, go do a history & physical on the patient, fill in the necessary areas on the chart, and report to our Resident all before the 10am rounds. Then during rounds we would go around with the Attending (head physician) and present each patient to the Attending before he or she went in to see them. Usually rounds lasted about 3 or 4 hours and they were pretty intense sometimes because the Attending would expect us to know everything about our patients and their medical conditions. Then after rounds, we got a lunch break and then the rest of the day was spent carrying out labs and orders and admitting any new patients who came in (usually transfers from the ER). Even though Inpatient was really difficult, it was by far my FAVORITE part of the rotation because it was so interesting and I learned so much!

*Weeks 3 & 4 - Outpatient: During these weeks I worked in the Wellness Center. It was kindof like the typical family practice clinic you would imagine...except it was in the South Bronx so every patient seemed to be addicted to crack or homeless or with some psych disorder...no joke! There were only two of us students and 4-6 Attending physicians each day so I got to learn a lot and I loved the doctors and nurses that worked in the clinic!

-Week 5 - Community Medicine: This week was kindof a joke...haha! The one medicine-like thing we got to do was go out for 2 days in a hospital RV with a nurse and a technician to screen members of the community for diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. The other days, we were expect to do a "community survey" and "site visits" for a community medicine project where we researched and took pictures of resources available for residents of the South Bronx. In my evaluation of this rotation, I will be suggesting that they do NOT have students do this because even though I went with my friend Samina, we still had to go out in a very sketchy neighborhood and it was really uncomfortable and felt very unsafe! One group of men even threatened to break our camera! It was kindof scary but we are done now and don't have to do anything like that again!

-Week 6 - Night Call: This is my last week and I am currently finishing the rotation with Night Call. This is a 7pm - 7am shift on the Inpatient floor (same location as the first 2 weeks). It can be pretty mellow or really busy depending on how many admissions we get from the ER...the first night we had only 2 admissions and then the floor was full so we were free for the rest of the night but the next night we had 10 admissions and were busy the entire night!

Other than working at the hospital, I have really gotten a chance to enjoy my free time and explore New York. I have really enjoyed living in Jean's neighborhood (Union Square) and I have spent a couple of days just walking around Manhattan, which has been a lot of fun! I have also gotten to spend time with Anne & Jean and their friends. We have gone to some fun restaurants, gotten pedicures, seen some amazing sights, traveled to Brooklyn, gone to a Yankees vs. Red Sox game, and gone to a concert in Central Park (at which we had VIP thanks to Jean!). It has been great!

In addition to fun Manhattan activities, I have been traveling out to Long Island often to look for apartments. After I am done with this rotation, I will be moving out to Long Island to start the remainder of my rotations at Nassau University Medical Center (where I will be for the next year). And I am happy to say that after some frustrating trips apartment hunting, I finally found a really nice one!

So this is the last week of my rotation at Bronx Lebanon. This Friday, my parents are flying in to help me move out to my Long Island apartment and to explore New York during the few days I have off before my next rotation starts. I am so excited for them to come out here! It will be great to have some help with the move and I know they are excited to see NYC since they have never been out here and I can't wait to show them my favorite spots!

In other future plans, Mike is tentatively planning to move out here over Labor Day weekend and my brother is considering coming out that weekend as well. We are all excited to possibly attend a US Open Tennis match in Queens that weekend!

So, lots of action going on and lots to look forward to in the coming weeks! :)

Washington Square