This trimester, part of our curriculum is a class called clinical encounters. With Dr. Wieland, the aim of this class is to enhance our interviewing skills, an essential component of a patient visit. When trying to understand a patient’s complaint and get to the root of the pathology, it is important to have the ability to guide a conversation in a productive manner while not seeming impatient or uncaring. It is both shocking and amazing how much of an impact a thoughtful and thorough patient visit will have on the future of the patient and their treatment plan. So far, we have had two standardized patient encounters, one in person and one virtually thanks to our temperamental weather. Through these experiences, I already feel more confident in the art of the patient interview and know honing my communication skills will pay off in spades once I enter practice.

Another aspect of the class to further push our knowledge of how to handle real patients is shadowing. For this class, we are given the opportunity to shadow both our own student clinicians at the Pinellas Park Clinic and Health Education Center as well as outside of school in our local community. I have had the pleasure of shadowing three times, including once at Coastal Chiropractic with Dr. Marc Rogers, and so far, have felt the knowledge and experience I have gained to be invaluable.

Shadowing is more than just watching a treatment, though. By viewing real encounters between a doctor and patient, we learn first-hand how other Chiropractic students and doctors are able to successfully implement treatments and help their patients. Additionally, shadowing a real office outside of school gives us the ability to learn about the functional aspects of the business side of Chiropractic, such as the mechanics of the support staff, waiting room, and even the atmosphere and décor of the office. I look forward to continuing my shadowing with our school and Dr. Rogers and can’t wait to continue sharing what I’ve learned.

Photo: Dr. Marc Rogers and NUHS-FL DC intern, Dylan Kahn.

Learn more about NUHS’ Doctor of Chiropractic program here.