APPEs at Wind River Wyoming

We started off the week in clinic by putting together our PowerPoint presentation for the in-service assignment we had been working on. Katherine reached out to schedule us to present to the different pod meetings at all 3 clinics Thursday-Wednesday, and we planned to present updates to the ADA Standards of Care regarding treatment and monitoring for T2DM. We were also including analysis from the clinic patient data we had been collecting in our presentation to discuss areas of treatment and monitoring in which the clinic could improve.  We spent Monday-Wednesday finalizing our analysis and compiling our presentation. Occasionally throughout the week we were able to counsel patients and replace their FreeStyle Libre sensors. We also input prescriptions as they were submitted by the clinic providers. On Thursday, we headed to the Arapahoe clinic for our first pod presentation. We presented alongside the TN students as they had put together a brief presentation on a different topic....

Whether you are preparing to head towards Wyoming for a rotation or are interested in a future job at the clinic, you may have the amazing opportunity to interact with Katherine - our wonderful preceptor. Katherine graduated from HCOP in 2019 and went directly into her first year of residency. She completed 1 year of residency at the North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo, MS. Initially after graduating, her plan was to complete at least 1 year of residency and pursue a job in either a hospital or ambulatory care setting. She was interested in moving out of Alabama, but did not have a specific city in mind. After completing her PGY1, she was interested in pursuing a career as a Navy pharmacist, but the timing did not work out in her favor as they were not accepting any new pharmacists at the time.  Initially after graduation she only took her MPJE for Mississippi. After her PGY1, she took the Alabama MPJE and briefly worked a remote job from home before finding her opportunity ...

We started off week 3 on Tuesday as we had Monday off for the holiday. We went to the Riverton location to work with Katherine's husband, Gray, this week to see the differences in their pharmacy. We spent most of Tuesday-Thursday working on chart reviews for our upcoming in-service presentation. We were able to vaccinate one patient during our time there, but at this point the rate of COVID vaccinations has slowed down tremendously.  On Wednesday, we were looking for a place to walk outside between when we left the clinic and when trivia started at Bar 10 (7pm) since we did not want to drive back to the house in between. Gray recommended we park at 307 Bar and Grill located in the Riverton Country Club and walk around this neighborhood area. This walk was really nice, and they have a walking trail right outside of the neighborhood you could walk down although I am not entirely sure where it goes.  We met Katherine and Gray at Bar 10 for trivia that afternoon and had a blast! T...

We spent the beginning of this week continuing our research for our P&T Committee presentation. After leaving the clinic on Monday, we decided to walk to the Sacajawea Cemetery which is about 5 miles round trip from the house. It was a very flat walk on the side of the road, so it was a nice breather from the hills we had climbed the past weekend. It was very interesting to read the information on the memorial statue and see the bright colors of the cemetery.  In addition to the continued research Tuesday, we were able to watch Katherine apply a FreeStyle Libre sensor to a patient and then put them on each other. Katherine helped us get set up with the app and showed us how to use the sensors. Unfortunately, they did not survive past the adventures of our weekend. After we left the clinic, we went to the Scream Shack attached to Lander Bar to get some ice cream. It was DELICIOUS - but make sure you bring cash. If you don't have any, there is an ATM inside Lander Bar. After our ...

Savannah and I got settled into the house the Sunday before our rotation started. A few notes to make about the house and area in general: You are welcome to bring bedding/towels, but there is plenty here if you need to save space in your luggage. There is no dishwasher, and there are enough dishes to get by with.  If you are driving, you may want to consider bringing things you normally use at home (air fryer, Keurig, personal blender, etc.) There are plenty of spices, and there will likely be some leftover food - I would recommend checking what is in all the cabinets before making your initial run to the grocery store.  There is a general store in town in case you need something quick, but I would recommend going to Safeway in Lander (about 20 minutes away). The house has wifi, but if you like to watch movies on the bigger TV screen, bring your favorite DVDs! I recommend downloading AllTrails. It has been helpful in finding places to explore! I would definitely bring some lo...

 Savannah and I were extremely lucky to get this as our Block 1 rotation, so we had two weeks off before having to start here. That allowed us time to travel and explore some sites before settling into the groove of rotations. As for myself, I took a 7-day road trip with my now-fiancé to see the country, and it was absolutely AMAZING! In case you are lucky enough to do this yourself, I'll give you an overview of what we saw and where we stayed. Day 1 - We did a chunk of driving this day and really only stopped to walk around the Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis, MO. I would absolutely recommend stopping here if you get the chance! It was MUCH larger than I expected and the park was beautiful to walk around. If you are good at planning in advance, you can reserve a time to go up into the arch, but just allot about an hour for that (we did not look in advance, and the next ride was too far out when we got there). Night 1 - Hampton Inn, Blue Springs MO (really nice and was the ...

 This was a rather calm week for us. We were welcomed with snow on Tuesday, we got about 3 inches (way more than was anticipated). We were worried we wouldn't see snow again before we left so this was a welcome surprise!  We spent this week at the Ethete clinic in order to help with vaccines. Most of the days we had ~15 vaccines since the tribe released a new mandate. Lori and I had a good system where one would administer and the other would input into the computer. This made time go by fast, so we enjoyed it. On Thursday we presented at the Med Staff meeting. We spoke on the newly released and recent indication changes for COVID 19 medications. The providers seemed interested in this topic so it was easy to present on!  On Saturday we went to the wild horse sanctuary in Lander. Our optometry roommate was able to get us in in time to help feed the horses. We took one big bale of hay and "flaked" it off each side. We could have reached out and touched the horses they were...