My first interview at Ross

Yesterday was such an exciting day, yet super packed for the most part. Our class was split up into 3 groups in the morning and each group was assigned to a different task - community clinics, ICM, or special interviews. Our group was part of the clinics, so we were shipped off to a village called Coulibistri to learn how to do patient interviews. The ride was not too bad as it only took about 25min. A strong feeling of sympathy grew inside me as soon as our bus turned the corner and started heading up a narrow dirt road pinched between small brick houses packed one against another. The area was definitely underdeveloped and some walls had holes in them. Our bus driver stopped in front of a small green house with chipped paint and told us that was our destination.

I walked inside with my team and saw 2 patients sitting in the waiting area. We greeted them and found out that they were the patients who were going to participate in our interviews today. Those 2 ladies were very sweet and welcoming, which made me feel at ease. By then the feeling of nervousness had almost disappeared completely. We met the nurse - a very gentle, caring Dominican lady. She introduced us to the patients and told us a bit about the village we are in. There were only about 600 residents in Coulibistri and one clinic (where we were at). The clinic was staffed 3 days a week with a nurse and doctor comes to the clinic twice a month. They did check ups and simple deliveries for pregnant mothers. The clinic, however, was underequipped - if there were birth complications, the patients had to goto another hospital not too far of a drive from the village. I took in the entire place as we had a little tour. The clinic was small and simple with only 3 small rooms plus one waiting area. Only the main 'delivery' room had a stretcher plus a small incubator-like container with small blankets in it. Other rooms mainly just had a few desks and chairs. Yet, I must say, although underequipped, the clinic was tidy and welcoming.

Anyhow, we divided up the group and went to different rooms for the interview. I was in a group of 3. Our patient was a middle-aged Dominican lady who couldn't really understand or speak a lot of English. Her mother tongue was Patois and she could freely communicate with the nurse (who sat in on our interview) without a problem. Even though it was a challenge getting information from her due to the language barrier, our team managed to finish the interview with plenty of data with a little of help from the nurse here and there. However, I must say that the patient made it easy for us because she was very cooperative despite the language barrier and tried to tell us as much as she could.

When we finished and got back to campus, we had a wrap-up session with a team leader - for us it was a Ross graduate who is waiting for his residency in ER medicine. He was an inspiration for me, most definitely. The wrap-up was great. It was a new way of approaching patient's conditions and made me feel like I had a LOT more to learn. Yet it was fascinating how our team leader could just put all these things together and come up with a differential. I can't wait to see myself do that! Anyhow, our session ran late and I had 15mins to grab a bite before the afternoon Behavioural Lab - a banana is always a good choice in those times.

The afternoon lab was also an interview session, but this one was slightly different from the one in the morning. We had our session in the ICM labs. There were 6 of us plus a facilitator, who happened to be another Ross graduate. Only one of us would be interviewing and the rest would observe and give feedback. I volunteered to go first (and I was a bit nervous at the beginning) and interviewed my patient in front of the entire group. The patient was a very nice lady and she was very kind and cooperative, once again! I almost drew a blank near the beginning of the interview because her case threw a curve ball at me - it wasn't the 'typical' example like the one we learned in class. So I couldn't exactly apply the format we were taught to do the interview. Anyhow I just went on to ask other questions, hoping that everything would come together and that what I was doing was at least close to the correct thing.

When I finished the interview, I was ultra nervous about what kind of feedback I was going to get from the facilitator. And surprisingly, he told us that I did 'a really great interview'! But of course there were things that I shouldn't have done or missed - I definitely took notes on those :) Oh, did I mention that we had to dress up the entire day for those interviews? I was not very comfortable in formal clothing! Definitely missed my T-shirt, shorts, and flipflops...

Alright, I need to get back to studying. Haven't had time to upload any pictures yet. Next time! Hope everyone is having a good day/night at the moment.