No class three again!

I had a patient come in today and was hoping that he would be a class three since that is just about the only requirement that I have left for this year and if I don't get that requirement, I'm going to have to be a first year next year until I find my class three. My future mom-in-law Cynthia is going to call an elderly man tomorrow and see if he would like to come in on Wednesday for a screening. Hopefully he says yes, and hopefully he is my three. It could be scary. I try not to worry about it too much though. It sounds like everyone else is in the same boat as I am in one way or another. I was foolish and didn't make any sort of goals or progression today, mostly because I was worried about this being my class three. Next time I see a patient and do the OD I will be sure to check on how fast I am probing. Another goal I have is to practice leading with the toe of the instrument and removing all the calculus before the teacher gets over. I'm good at finding it for the most part, but not all the time. I need to get better at it. Anyways, that is all for now.

3-22-10

Overall it was a sucessful day. I finished my exam class 2 patient and got a PE done, and it is monday. I think scaling took me just under an hour, so I know have a mark to beat the next time I have a class 2 patient. Maybe my goal will be 45 minutes. That would be good. I'm really worried at this point in time whether or not I will be able to find my class 3 patient. Everyone is kind of desperate in that way. I will be seeing 3 patients next week just to do a screening in hopes of finding my three I think I will make a goal of getting to the OD in less time than the previous patient. My main goal is to get all 3 of them in before the day is over. It will be a big task, but hopefully it will work. That is all for today.

03-08-10

Today was just easy going to and normal. I did better at my goal of not getting frustrated with myself and things went smoother than usual. I also went five minutes faster on my scaling and I didn't even ultrasonic that much. I still haven't paid much attention to how fast I probe, but it feels like I'm getting faster anyway. I got done with my patient quite quickly actually. I don't really have much to say. This wednesday I'm going to do my second 1B exam patient and hopefully pass off PE's. My goal is to pass off a couple of them, maybe three. I'm getting really worried about finding my class three patient and also having enough patients to do bitewings on. That's all.

3-1-10

Today was frustrating, but not as much as last monday. This was the first patient I had that I've never seen before, as in he wasn't a friend or family. It was really weird and I kind of felt nervous and unprofessional. Again, I need confidence. He came a little late, so I didn't finish him on time, but I did finish him. I'm pretty sure I was the last person with a patient in the chair. I made a mistake today that was stupid and I should've just fixed it from the beginning. I probed his whole mouth, but got things a little mixed up and backwards on the green sheet and had to probe him all over again. What a waste of time. Next time I really need to pay attention to where I am writting the numbers. Other than that things went well. There are just a few clicks that I missed. I'm still not really sure of how to look and feel for calculus on the lower anterior teeth and everywhere else for that matter. I know I could save so much time if I knew what it felt like instead of just cleaning everywhere and hoping that I got everything. I guess my goal for next time then is to have one of the TA's help me. Or maybe it goes back to confidence. I'm so scared of missing something, but maybe I need to just trust what I am feeling and take chances. If something feels clean then I need to skip it and move on. I'm just so worried that an instructor will come over and say that I missed everything. I've got to take my chances. Maybe I'll ask the TA to help me with it first before I have it officially checked. Yeah, that is a good idea. My goal for wednesday is to pay attention to the time it takes me to probe so that I can make a goal to become faster.

2-24-10

Again, I am writting this post a little late. This is for Wednesday. It was awesome. I had a class 2 come in that I am going to use as my exam patient. I was able to do the blood glucose PE on him as well as get a full set of X-rays on him. Things went really smoothly. Once again I failed at my goal of how long it took to probe, but it would've been a little skewed anyway because I can't lay the patient all the way back. That was an experience. I was a lot slower and my arms are so sore now! I learned at the end of the day that I can use an assistance chair to get a little higher so that I don't have to give up my posture so much. I think that will really help, so I'm going to try that for next time. I won't be seeing this patient again until the end of the month, but it will be interesting trying to clean his mouth while he is sitting up. I will try to scale in under an hour, but we'll see how it goes. That is just the goal.

2-22-10

I know I'm writting this a week late, but I still remember the day all to well. the worst day of clinic yet. But I'm not going to focus on the negative. It is one of my new goals to only focus on the positive and only learn from the negative, not dwell on it. I learned that no matter how prepared you are, there is always a chance of something going wrong, and part of being a professional is handling it in the best way or making the best out of the situation. Last monday I kind of froze up because the unexpected happened, I wasn't able to see my patient. I learned that I need to calm down and keep my head on straight. I need to have confidence that I know what I am doing. I need to not second guess myself. I guess the biggest thing is confidence. I get to realize that I am still a first year student and as such, I'm not going to be perfect. I need to have confidence in what I can do and learn from what I can't do. Anyway, I think that is enough murmuring, which is not why we have these blogs, so moving on. I was able to get an exam patient done today for a 1a and now I am done with 1a's. I don't feel like I did my best simply because I got frustrated. I guess that is what I was trying to say earlier. I can't function when I am frustrated, so maybe in the future I just need to take some time to maybe wash my hands and calm down before I continue and rather than loose my head, I need to draw on the knowledge that i have to fix the problem. There was just a piece of calculus that I couldn't get off. I know how to remove calculus, but I was getting so frustrated with the time limit and the fact that it was an exam that I kind of gave up and had the instructor finish getting the calculus. Why do I get so nervous? I think in the future, when that happens, I just need to take a little break and calm down and think about the situation logically before I continue. Time does matter, but quality matters more. So, bottom line, this is my new goal. When I sense that I am nervous or getting frustrated, I need to take a break to wash my hands under cold water and think about the situation and reasure myself that I know what I'm doing. I don't know what my last goals were as far as a 1a, but I think it had to do with completing the OD because last time I wasn't so sure about that. So, that goal I completed. I don't know how long it took me to clean the kids mouth. he did have a tone of plaque and calculus for a little kid though so I'm sure I'll be faster next time. But there won't be a next time until next semester since I am done with class 1a's and don't plan on having any more. I also have a goal to be more fun with them. I'm not the best at knowing how to handle kids in the Hygiene chair. I can play with them outside the office, but in the office it is still a little weird for me. I've got to work on that. I need to listen to Sarah because she always has cute things to say to the kids to make them feel comfortable. Okay, that is all. This blog took way to long.