Tim's ND Blog

Winter continues here at NUHS in the Chicago suburbs. While not a normal winter for the Chicagoland area, the snow has been beautiful in its ubiquitous falling, blanketing and build-up!

Clinic has chugged along through the weather, low temps and snow squalls. Our interns and clinicians have battled through the snarled traffic, snowdrifts and partially successful attempts to start their vehicles to maintain the excellent level of care that the NUHS naturopathic clinic provides!

On days that are not as busy because of the weather, those of us who are in tenth trimester clinic are going through our portfolios and check-off sheets to ensure that we have met our requirements for graduation. When possible, we sit with a clinician and speak of various ailments, maladies and injuries followed by the appropriate triage, treatment and healing strategies for a patient with that illness.

The portfolio includes everything from prenatal care to geriatrics and all stages of life, health and illness in between. Combined with our patient variety, over 450 or more total unique visits and rotations with the Salvation Army clinic in Chicago, the Naperville clinic and homeopathic rotations, we are well prepared as we sit down to discuss these patient conditions and how we would treat them.

So, even though winter is keeping most of us indoors for the next few days, we are quite busy with our clinic duties and fulfilling clinic requirements...well, except for the occasional midnight stroll through a nice little snowstorm! 

Until next week, keep warm and talk to you then!

One of the many skills that we develop while here at NUHS, and perhaps one of the more important, is taking an assessment of a patient's typical diet. Once we have a good diet recall or diary from a patient, we can determine the benefits and drawbacks of the patient's diet, the impact (for better or worse) upon the patient's health, and then we can make modifications as necessary to help the patient return to a basis for health.

Intern Heather Bautista taking a dietary assessment from Intern Jerrica Sweetnich.

We start by getting a log of a patient's typical weekday and weekend diets as many people eat differently on the weekends than they do during the workweek. After a review of the diet with the patient, we consult with our clinicians regarding the patient's chief complaint, review of systems, health stressors, and treatment plan. Part of the treatment plan involves modifications in a patient's diet and may include the following:

• Water Intake or hydration
• Meats (unless vegetarian/vegan)
• Vegetarian/vegan sources of protein
• Vegetables
• Fruits
• Avoidance of grains (if necessary)
• Healthy fat (Omega 3 Fatty Acid) sources
• Dairy sensitivities
• Estrogenic food intake and impact upon estrogen levels
• Sugar intake
• Fiber intake

...just to name a few.

Dietary modifications are a key tool to help our patients return to a basis for health. Our health begins with the nutrients we provide our bodies for building strong muscle, bone, nervous tissue, and preventing or fighting infection.

With that said, I'll grab a healthy bite to eat and make my way to clinic for the afternoon shift. This evening its time to carve pumpkins by the fire pit and make ready for Halloween!

Time to settle into the weekly routine again, albeit things are a bit different this trimester. With class and clinic rotations 5 days each week, along with work on the side during some mornings and each weekend, time is a precious commodity.

This is what a typical clinic schedule looks like for a 9th/10th trimester ND Intern.

During clinic, we sit down for "preview" each day to discuss upcoming patient cases and strategies for best helping our patients in a roundtable discussion. This is a "safe zone" to bounce ideas, debate the best strategy amongst peers and under the guidance of our clinicians. The idea is to share knowledge through discussion in a practical manner without judgment. This approach allows us to discuss all treatment modalities, their benefits, drawbacks and limitations, then move forward with the best overall treatment for our patients.

After preview, we see our patients, chart, research, develop and bring our suggested treatment plans to our clinicians, who vet the plans and approve or amend as required for the benefit of our patients. We must complete all of these tasks during our shifts as HIPPA regulations dictate that no patient records leave the premises. We learn quickly to be accurate, concise and have all work completed by the end of the day out of necessity.

Even though this seems like a lot of work, clinic is a fun, nurturing environment that I look forward to every day. The smiles on patients' faces when they begin to feel better, heal and share is priceless! The patience, knowledge, skill and care that our clinicians share with each intern on a daily basis set an excellent example for all of us as future doctors.

Me with Carrie (left) and Juanita (right), both 6th trimester ND students

The photo I'm sharing this week is of two friends and me. I was printing something at the library the other day and ran into them after having not seen either for about two months! This made me realize that I was separated from the rest of campus now that I'm in clinic and needed to visit my old friends still in their clinical courses. Challenge accepted...