Catholic Charities Free Healthcare Center: Pittsburgh, PA

"Good Morning. Did you have a good weekend?" Asks the security guard at the Catholic Charities building.  After an exchange about our mutual love of hiking in the fall weather, I walk up to the third floor of the Victory Building where the free healthcare center is located.  I begin my day by looking at the schedule- it jam packed. We've got ent, gyn, dermatology, general medicine, and cardiology.  That means I've got to do some rearranging of our specialty carts. After a brief chat with one of the volunteer nurses, we make a game plan, and I begin rearranging the rooms to make that happen.  While I'm doing this, the volunteer nurse is preparing our schedules and starting morning paper work.  Then we both verify the flu vaccine vials match our consent forms- these flu vaccines were generously donated to the clinic by tow of the volunteer physicians.  Now are first patient is here, so off I go to escort him back to one of the exam rooms.  i obtain a set of vitals find out their chief complain, and get a but of medical history.  The physician this patient is seeing is a resident from one of the local hospitals who rotate through the clinic for a couple of weeks, so the more information about the patient I can share with her the better picture she'll have since she doesn't follow this patient long term.  After speaking with the patient, I go present the patient to one of the pharmacy students working at the clinic who then sees the patient.  While the pharmacist is doing this, I speak with the physician about the patient, and chart my assessment in the EMR.  Now I'm off to help another physician with some computer problems before taking another patient back to the exam room.  "Tracy, Ive got a question for you about this patient you just had me see." says the resident.  After talking for about about his plan of care, we both realize we need a pharmacist to assist us, so we walk across the hallway to the pharmacy work room. These conversations are one of my favorite things about working in the clinic- real interdisciplinary collaborative work!  After revising the plan of care, I begin preparing orders for lab work and x-rays for the patient before explaining to him how he can go about getting these at no or little cost.  While I'm doing this, one of the volunteer nurses has finished up with the other patient I saw this morning.  now that my two patients are discharged, I go back to the nurses station to see if anymore patients have arrived. After seeing several more patients in a similar fashion to the first patient I saw, its time for lunch.  I'm working with the gynecologist this afternoon which is nice because you have more time with each of your patients and you're not trying to juggle the needs of four patients and four doctors.  By the end of the day, I'm ready to clean up, pack up, and go home to reflect on all the things I learned that day.  It never ceases to amaze me how much there is to learn.  I've included a photo of Nicole, the other FPB student, and I with two of the volunteer nurses.