A Week In the Life As a Barre Resident

2011-05-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

Allison Hargreaves, MD is a recent graduate of our Worcester residency. She has since joined our faculty as Assistant Professor at the Barre Community Health Center and also serves as Director of our Family Medicine Inpatient Service. During her PGY-3 year, while still serving as Chief Resident at Barre, Allison wrote this column for us about her day-to-day life in Barre.

Reflecting on the past week, I realize just how fortunate I am to be a family medicine resident here in Barre. My training has been rich with variety, accomplishments, meaningful interactions and personal growth. Here, I will share just a snapshot of my experiences from this past week.

Last week, I completed a self-designed elective in maternal-child health in which I was able to enhance my own confidence and skills in labor management. I was also able to spend some time teaching an intern and medical student about the joys of caring for mother and baby. It amazes me how far I have come since I was in that medical student's shoes!

Prior to this month's rotation in orthopedics, I returned from Baltimore where I attended a meeting sponsored by the Northeast Region of Teachers of Family Medicine. I was able to show the work I did on my senior project - creating a web-based child health curriculum in the form of a poster that I presented.

I also had the opportunity to co-present with Stacy Potts, MD, our residency director. Our topic was using electronic learning portfolios in the mentoring relationship. Being around other family physicians who are committed to teaching and doing amazing things was truly inspiring!

Of course, caring for my patients is at the heart of family medicine. Yesterday, I saw a variety of patients and I was fortunate to have a fourth-year visiting medical student spend some time with me. We started the afternoon with an emotionally-charged interview with my patient, myself, and our psychologist at the health center. With the psychologist's help, the patient and I were able to make some links between her past experiences and her current symptomatology.

In addition to the usual follow-ups with my other patients, I also had two procedures scheduled, including a sebaceous cyst removal and an IUD insertion. I am particularly excited to start off the morning tomorrow seeing one of my favorite prenatal patients who is due shortly - I cannot wait to get the call that she is in labor and then to be at her delivery!

All of this in just one week! I am truly grateful to be part of the Barre family and to be surrounded by supportive faculty, staff and fellow residents!

Worcester Family Medicine Residency Blog

A Week In the Life As a Barre Resident