MedEx Day 7 - July 7, 2021

Today was the 7th day of MedEx and our first clinical day of Tier III. I shadowed at Prisma's Greenville Memorial Hospital in the CV Monitored Surgery Unit. I shadowed this unit for around 3 hours. Instead of this being a surgical unit, this unit was dedicated to patients who had just had surgery (essentially a MedSurg floor). While on the floor, I and two other MedEx Tier III students were asked to be bibliotherapists for the patients on the floor. Tier III normally goes into nursing homes to act as Bibliotherapists; however, due to COVID-19, this bibliotherapy opportunity was improvised. Bibliotherapy is the act of treating patients by reading with them in order to help calm any anxieties and transport them to a different place.

Unfortunately, most of the people on this unit of the hospital were younger (about my age) and were not interested. Instead, my other colleagues and I went around with a snack cart and delivered snacks to patients. Afterwards, we were each given the opportunity to shadow a nurse for a few hours. While shadowing my nurse, I found out about a lot of issues that have arisen between doctors and nurses/ their interactions. According to my nurse the Epic interface between physicians and nurses is very different/ this can lead to difficulties in seeing what is going on with a patient. I found this very interesting, as my girlfriend, who is a nurse, has also made similar comments... this can lead to worse patient outcomes, heightened patient anxieties (due to not knowing what is going on), and difficulties in following a treatment plan. It was an interesting shadowing experience and worth it to see how some patients interact with providers, even a provider who is planning to sit, talk, and read with them/ how this interaction is not always a positive one.