Medical Shadowing Experience

From early in my childhood, every toy and electronic device in our house was a target for creative ‘re-construction’, holding each piece up with a probing ‘why’. As I grew older, ‘why’ became a need to fix, build and reconceptualize and so the path toward medicine was a natural progression. Years later, my facscination in podiatry emerged through formal and informal study; recognizing a medical universality about the specific region of the foot and ankle. In incorporating a range of specialties to include Dermatology, Orthopedics, and Pain Management, few areas of medicine seemed so encompassing.

A personal turning point was the realization that mobility is what defined the very notion of functional independence. The benefit of focusing …show more content…
Upon my return, I began a systemic program of medical shadowing. Observing Dr. Dwight J. Goddard's interactions with his patients was a privilege. As Chair of Family Medicine at San Antonio Community Hospital, his experience and mentorship has been invaluable. Not only did I understand ways of best serving a diverse patient cohort, but how to maintain professional decorum while easing patient fears. Exploring podiatry at the clinics and surgical centers of the Family Foot Center, under the direction of Dr. Katzman and Dr. Magrann, underscored the need to have a commanding knowledge of the sciences with numerous problems recurring as the result of uncontrolled systemic diseases. Such realization motivated post graduate course work in Anatomy, Physiology, and Immunology. With this level of quality clinical exposure, the work of podiatry took on dimensionality whether observing loading the foot to determine foot type and range of motion, or watching the monofilament test. Having seen warts frozen, orthotics customized, and surgical pins inserted, the meaning of the degree I aspired to earn only deepened. From surgical procedures to appreciating the professional lives podiatrists enjoy with the balance between the clinic and surgical center, the range of possibility with respect to patient care increasingly reinforced my surety in the choice …show more content…
In the wake of my travels abroad I reflected back on my experience in Honduras. Virtually the entire population there were barefoot and many were in the throes of advanced diabetes. In our advanced medical culture, diabetes remains the primary cause behind foot amputation, which only affirmed there was much I needed to consider in the future in terms of new treatments for this ongoing epidemic. Such vigilance is largely what makes this such a complementary career choice. In the future I plan to focus my practice on the surgical intervention of diseases relating to the foot and ankle, believing that such dedication will yield immense difference in the lives of the many in need. In podiatry, you can help patients who require hospital admission or enable that young baseball pitcher that slid for home too fast to play again. In short, to my mind there is no area in medicine that offers the practitioner