My experience at Statcare’s Astoria location was nothing short of amazing. I was given a lot of autonomy, which I liked, in addition to the opportunity to consult and ask questions to the providers, scribes, and medical assistants, who were all very friendly and willing to teach. I was able to see every patient by myself at first and perform the review of systems and physical exam before reporting back to the provider that day with my list of differentials and treatment plan. If there was something that I forgot to ask as part of the history or if my treatment plan required some refining, the providers would let me know in an educational way. In addition, the providers and medical assistants allowed me to perform any procedures, as long as I was comfortable in doing so. I was also the only student rotating at this location so I really enjoyed the opportunity to have increased autonomy. Another plus was the chance to work with multiple different PAs since I was able to observe their respective styles of interacting with patients to ultimately develop my own style of seeing patients.
Because this was an urgent care, I was able to practice a variety of skills. Since I did not have my surgery or emergency medicine rotations yet, prior to this rotation, I did not have much experience with giving injections, suturing, or with wound care. However, I was able to practice these skills with the provider’s oversight in the beginning and then by myself afterwards. Suturing and wound care in particular was more challenging at first because patients sustain wounds differently and based on the presentation, we would have to consider gluing versus stitches, where to put the stitches so that the wound heals and looks the best, and what type of splint to give for the patient. I also enjoyed the high volume of patients per shift. My experience in this rotation only solidified my preference of working in fast paced environments with little to no downtime. I seldom felt that I was working because I enjoyed seeing so many patients per day, which made time pass by very quickly.
It did not take long for me to realize that part of working in urgent care revolves around customer satisfaction as part of running a business. Many of the patients who walk into urgent care expect to get antibiotics after, even for mild cases of sinusitis or viral conjunctivitis. Although all the providers and I both knew that it was not the best practice to prescribe antibiotics when they are not needed, they taught me that patients will not return to our urgent care in the future if they are unsatisfied or they may leave bad reviews on platforms like Yelp or Google. In the beginning, I felt a bit of unease seeing how many antibiotics were being prescribed and possibly abused but I made an effort to educate patients about proper use of antibiotics, possible resistance, and the many side effects that may worsen their initial complaint. Sometimes, I could change the patients’ mind and offer them other types of supportive care but many of them still requested antibiotics.
Overall, I really enjoyed the high volume and fast-paced environment of working in urgent care. This experience was like a little snippet of what’s to come for my last rotation that I am looking forward to most, the ER.
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