Seemingly out of nowhere, we have reached the end of the trimester. It feels like just last week I was walking into the clinic for my first day as an intern, and this has led to my reflection on my experience thus far. For my final blog post of Tri 8, I thought I would discuss my belief about our role as a Chiropractic student in both school and especially clinic. Like many other learning opportunities throughout life, we define our own experiences. But what does this really mean and how can you use this for your advantage?
Student Approaches
When it comes to performing your duties and completing meta competency outcomes (MCOs for short) in clinic, there are clearly two approaches students could take. The first approach is doing tasks or taking care of patients for the sole purpose of getting credit. While this seems like what we all would do, I urge everyone to take a deeper look into the second approach. The second way I see interns progressing through clinic is taking every patient encounter as a new opportunity to better themselves and improve their clinical skills in order to truly become a better future physician. We have a duty to our future patients to use school to absorb as much clinic experience as possible, so that when we graduate, we go out into practice as professional and competent doctors. While this may seem obvious to some, I would suggest it is far less common than one may assume.
Phase 3: Clinical Practice
As I find myself really facing the end of our program with only Phase 3 left, the desire to also remind everyone of the amazing future we are working for became apparent. While it may feel overwhelming at times, and I myself am currently facing Tri 8 finals while still seeing patients, it is a blessing to be in a position to face these challenges head on. I wish you all luck on finals, and I can’t wait to return in Tri 9 with more exciting stories and thoughts about my student experience!
Follow Dylan’s Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine student journey.
