Dental Clinic and other Affairs

Well as I wrote on my previous post, I was finally volunteering at the Dental Clinic. Let me say something about San Jose Dental Clinic. As I mentioned before, the clinic has 3 floors. The first floor deals with signing in and out, scheduling appointments, becoming a member, and mostly about organizing papers! The second floor locates the Pharmacy, medical, optometric, and pediatric aisles. The third floor is where the dental clinic is located and some human resources offices. Yesterday I was thinking of this structure as the inverse of what you see in Dante's Inferno. As you know, Dante lowered through all the circles of Hell, each worse than the previous one, so he could go to through Purgatory and finally get to the Paradiso to see his beloved Beatrice. Well, I see each level of the clinic as a circle of Paradiso where the Dental Clinic is the final step. Very funny, I know... My experience in the Dental facilities really helped me to understand what it is that you need to become a dentist. So much needs to happen to get that flow going around the Clinic. I feel grateful that I had the chance to experience what happens at San Jose Clinic. The staff is very appreciative of your volunteer work and they let you know every time you go there. Although I was not so sure about volunteering at the beggining mostly because I had to work and deal with family and other affairs, I would treasure this experience forever.

This is the entrance to the dental clinic located at the third floor in the San Jose Clinic

One of the stations were I was stationed during my volunteer time.

One of the doctors at the dental clinic!

Finally... Dental Clinic part 1

So, I was able to work at the Dental Clinic this week. It was pretty hectic and the nurses just let me go around the place. I really liked how clean and efficient the facility is. The head dentist was so funny! He was making jokes with me about how painful dental school is going to be. The other doctors seem to enjoy the company of others. They were very easy going with the patients too. I got nothing to do the first hour. It was very dissapointed, to be honest. But, I got the opportunity to see how it works to be a dentist and to treat patients. For example, this patient came very nervous, it was his first time going to the dentist and he was well over 50. He needed work on his front teeth. The dentist took all the time familiarizing with the patient, talking to him about what he expected to do with his new teeth. And I thought that was amazing because the dentist used the future to motivate the patient. I guess few people realize that there must be this friendly empathic side on each dentist.

Playing Receptionist vol. 2

Well this week I worked helping the girls scheduling patients. It was a very hectic couple of hours because many of the doctors were not able to see their patients on their usual schedule, so everything just piled up! On top of calling to re-schedule appointments, we had to call to remind other patients of their upcoming visits. I did several doctors' worksheets and ocassionally I found myself on a long over the phone conversation with one or two patients. It is amazing how many of the patients do not remember their doctor's appointment, or their doctor at all!! In the meantime, I became friends with the girls who work so hard keeping the clinic on schedule. For sure, I am seeing receptionists, and other people who keep offices, clinics, practices running smoothly with so much respect after these past weeks.

First floor Reception Area

The last three weeks of volunteer work, I was working with the scheduling ladies making sure that patients would be reminded of their upcomming appointments.

Another pic with the most happiests, laughable, nicests receptionist I have ever met in my entire life!

Playing Secretary

So this week was all about customer service. I was re-located in the customer service area. This week I was calling patients to remind them of their upcoming appointments. The clinic works by calling patients three days in advance of their appointment to confirm or cancel the appointment. My bilingual abilities once again paid off! I worked with two veteran women in the clinic; They are very nice and we connect immediately! The majority of the patients I called were going to see a podiatrist or an optometrist. Once again, their problems can be connected back to diabetes. ALL of the patients I called had diabetes (mostly type II). It is funny how the patients do not remember of their appointments, or evenmore, the especialist they are seeing that day. It was a busy day, the busiest I have ever have in the Clinic. But it was so worth it, I learned a lot in this rotation. Customer service it is a vital part of the Clinic.

Excuse me....Can I ask you a few questions?

That's how my volunteer week went on. I had to survey patients because the Clinic wants to know how the patients feel about their new facility and their service. Most of the patients-if not all- I surveyed were on the Dental Clinic. It was good for me to see what their thoughts were about their dental appointments. I, as an aspiring dentist will benefit a lot from this survey too. Questions ranged from if the doctors explained the procedures well, how the staff was treating them, how hard was to get an appointment, and if they got any remainder before their appointment day. Surprisingly, in average, the waiting time was not that long. All the patients were really pleased with the staff's amiability and the doctor's care for their health. The clinic got excellent reviews and many of the patients were ecstatic to see that the Clinic actually takes their time to hear their opinion's and comments in order to improve their service. This week really made me feel really good. It was by far the best experience in my volunteer run. Been able to talk and hear the patients is something so rewarding and fulfilling. I can't wait to be in the Clinic again!

A great Week!

This week I found myself very active in the clinic. I finally got my username and password which are required for logging into any computer in the clinic. This time I was working with the medical practice director. I had to create a brochure in both English and Spanish for a new service the clinic is trying to offer. The design was very simple but I believe it conveyed the information in a clear and concise manner. While I was doing my assignment, I couldn't help to notice that some of the patients that were getting prescriptions suffered from diabetes and/or high blood pressure. Diabetes seems to be a very dominant disease among those who come to the clinic. I think that more information on the subject should be more visible in the clinic. I have only spot a few fliers about healthy diet for diabetics, but nothing about the disease itfself. It would be very good to make an information brochure with general things, but also with things that people normally do not associate with diabetes. The more we spread the word, the more we can prevent!

New Rotation...New Exposures

I loved my volunteering assigment this week! After a meeting with our coordinator, Vy and I toured the Dental clinic facilities. After a while, Vy went on to filing paperwork and I was more than happy to survey the kids that were in the clinic. San Jose also does survey work for other companies, in this case, there was a children's book that is in a testing state. The book was bilingual, so I read it in both English and Spanish. There was not a lot of kids though, but the few that I was able to see had very strong opinions. The older kids (6-8 years old) did like the story of Toñito and his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. Toddlers on the other hand, hatted it because it was boring and "there was not space for coloring" according to these little critics. The kids that were around 4-5 years old, had a mild opinion of the book. They like it but they were not thrilled about the dense narrative. It is impressive how a one year old can give you a blunt clear opinion. Too bad that the ability of being very sincere  gets blurry as we grow older. I loved working with the kids, they were very attentive and excited. It make me realize that those little people have a mind and opinion of their own!!! The last thing I did this week on my volunteering was proofreading several  brochures in Spanish that the clinic is planning to release to its patients in the next month. Well, I cannot wait to see what I will be doing on my next rotation. 

First Day of Volunteer Work!

My first day of volunteer work was not what I was expecting. Well I got lost again!! I'm just starting to realize that my husband was right! I'm definitively horrible with directions! Thankfully I got out of the house 30 minutes earlier so I had that wiggle room. When I got to the clinic, there were lots of patients already! It was not even 8 a.m. The director located me into the eye clinic. The first hour and a half was very slow. I was suppossed to serve as a translator but they were not needing my services. During that time I read all the spanish panflets they had available. To my horror, the grammar and sentence structures were just wrong. I corrected ALL those panflets because I could not believe that whoever translated the information did a good job. I also noticed that most of the patients that had an appointment in the eye clinic were women. Also, the nurses were really nice to show me the triage process. I realized that ALL of the patients in the two hours I spent there on my first day suffered from diabetes. One of the volunteer doctors told me that most of the patients' underlying problems are due to diabetes. The patients either do not take their medication on a regular basis or they just do not get any treatment and underestimate the potentially dangerous consequences of diabetes. I learn so many new things today, even if it was a bit slow. I found myself very curious about the dynamic on San Jose.

Updates

Well I'm so happy!!! Last week I kept in continuos contact with the director of volunteer affairs at San Jose clinic. I was getting a little worried that I was not going to be able to start volunteering this week. Thankfully, this past week I finalized and was accepted at San Jose. Another Cell bio student is there with me so it is a good thing! This past Saturday I went for an orientation. I was really amazed to see the facilities in which the clinic operates. It is a brand new building really pretty and chic. This past saturday was filled with patients since UT dental students were there volunteering. I was so happy to see that UT dental volunteers at San Jose on a regular basis at least once a month. I was so nervous about what to do there, and I honestly was not quite sure of how to approach the director. Well, she was so much nicer than what I expected, so she took the time to show us how the clinic functions, the many facilities and doctors that volunteer there and also she shows us the safety measurenments in which the clinic works. I got an excellent impression of the staff that works there and I saw that there were mostly hispanic patients so in a way, I can help the doctors that do not speak spanish with translation and things like that. After the tour, we were able to sit down and talk with the coordinator as to our assignments and our time in San Jose. I decided on volunteer every friday for two hours. I would have loved to be around the dental clinic but sadly, it is too hectic. However, I was promised to shadow a dentist some time around the end of this semester which is really thoughtfful. I really appreciate the attention and caring the staff showed us this past saturday. Also, since we need to do a poster at the end of this semester about a popular disease in our clinic, the coordinator was more than happy to give us some ideas. She is looking for something like a brochure for kids for the dental clinic. We could teach them good oral habits and so on. I am very excited to work with San Jose. Finally, just today I got an e-mail from the Development coordinator at El Centro de Corazón and they offered me some volunteer oportunities there shadowing one of their dentist. I am so excited about that too!!!! I guess that good things do come for those who wait.

Searching!

This week has been pretty hectic. Trying to find a place to volunteer  is not as easy as it sounds. I am very very interested in volunteer at the Montrose Clinic and San Jose Clinic. This summer I tried to volunter at San Jose but they did not have anything available. It was so hard not being able to help. Last wednesday I drove around the Montrose Clinic and I really liked the environment and the vibe, sadly they have not answered my mail or calls. San Jose finally answered me yesterday with good news! They will be able to accomodate me. I was also thinking on volunteer on The Children's Assesment Center. But honestly, having a kid myself it would be hard and it make me have an uneasy feeling all over. Well... On Monday, I am planning to drive around San Jose Clinic and on Wednesday I'm hoping to fill out the application and make a tour around the facility. I know that San Jose does a noble job extending their hand to those uninsured people who desperatively need medical or dental assistance. I'm hoping to learn a lot from this experience and to enrich my awareness and sensibility on these cases.

For now, let's just enjoy the weekend and Happy Labor Day!!!