Kim's Blog

This trimester, two new NUHS students joined the team at Stroger's Hospital. NUHS students Dong Ming Sung and Asim Kamal became rotating residents at Stroger's hospital this trimester. These students bring a strong skill set and knowledge base to the team.

Both students feel this opportunity is a cornerstone in their educational career. "I think this is real world experience," Dong Ming stated. "It is similar to what career life will be after I graduate. Every student in our school should participate in this great opportunity. I really appreciate that Dr. Frank Yurasek is giving us this great opportunity!"

Dong Ming Sung, Asim Kamal, and myself

I fully agree with Dong Ming. I believe we are privileged to experience many unique patient interactions at Stroger's. We are fortunate to introduce AOM to many patients who have never experienced it. Additionally, these patients are experiencing remarkable results with the addition of AOM treatments.

This trimester, we have worked together at Stroger's for three weeks. We have already been taught many new skills and tools from working with our patients. Our clinician, Frank Yurasek, PhD (China), LAc, continuously shares knowledge and skills we haven't learned elsewhere. The learning that occurs during this residency is so rich. Many of the AOM residents feel the knowledge we gain during our time at Stroger's seems equivalent to taking many additional educational seminars. At times, we learn AOM techniques and information we hadn't even imagined were possible. This residency adds a new depth, perception, and application of AOM.

One of the unique opportunities that NUHS offers its AOM students is a rotating residency at Cook County's Stroger Hospital in Chicago. 

AOM students in their final trimester have the ability to be on the cutting edge of research and hospital treatment by being a rotating resident at Stroger. The residency brings AOM students into the hospital's pain clinic. Currently, residents work under clinician, Frank Yurasek, PhD, MSOM, and along with Jackie, a nurse in the pain clinic.

Dr. Frank Yurasek and Pain Clinic Nurse Jackie

By performing this residency, seniors have the opportunity to learn many avenues for treating pain through AOM, generally not taught in textbooks. Patients typically experience a profound effect after receiving AOM treatments at Stroger's pain clinic. Many times, pain initially rated as 10/10 on the VAS pain scale drops down to 4 or less after receiving an AOM treatment. Additionally, most patients' pain continues to stay reduced from its original level between appointments. 

During a typical day at the pain clinic, a resident will see 6-10 patients during 4 hours. Since that is a significant amount of patients for an AOM resident in a short amount of time, the resident often treats patients using one of the microsystems of the body. In AOM, there are various regions on the body, such as the ear, that are able to treat the entire body. By understanding the mapping and function of these systems, residents are able to treat conditions such as low back pain, sciatica and knee pain by using needles or ear seeds in the patient's ear. Ear seeds are little beads that stick onto the ear and work as pressure points. The scalp is another region of the body that is a microsystem with the ability to treat the whole body.

Me, Dr. Yurasek, and Mary Thuermer

Since I feel this program at Stroger is an incredible learning opportunity, I will be blogging about it more often. I think it teaches many things, such as sometimes the quickest and easiest treatments can make the most profound impact when treating pain conditions.