Journal Entry Week #6

Day Time In Lunch Time Out Total Hours

Monday June 3, 7:20 am 11:45 pm -12:00 5:10 pm 9.6
2022 pm

Tuesday June 7:20 am 11:50 am- 12:00 4:45 pm 9.25

14, 2022 pm

Wednesday June 7:45 am 11:40 am – 5:10 pm 9.17

15, 2022 11:55 am

Thursday June 6:30 am No lunch 8:30 am 2

16, 2022

Friday June 17, 6:25 am No lunch 12:25 pm 6

2022

Total Hours 36.02

Weekly

Total Hours to 226.34

Date

About my Week
This week went well, considering we were very short staffed with the other medical

assistants. Four of our medical assistants were out on vacation and we were short on one

Physician’s Assistant due to the flu. It was a very busy week because of this. I came down with

food poisoning on Thursday and had to leave early. In addition to this week being very busy due

to being short on staff, it was also very busy because we had guest surgeons and nurse

practitioners visiting and scrubbing into surgeries. My site supervisor had to spend most of her

time with them this week, so I did not get a chance to speak with her about finalizing a day for

my project presentation. I have plans to speak with her on Monday to go over that and my

progress on the project itself. My project is going very well. All of the team members that are
assigned to accreditation duties split up the work load. My main tasks included creating a Master

list of all doctors, PA’s, NP’s, nurses, Occupational Therapists, ultrasound technicians, and

medical assistants and their certifications as well as when those certifications expire and when

they were verified. In addition to this, my other task is to get proof of Continuing Medical

Education hours for all doctors, PA’s, NP’s, and 2 of our RN’s. So far, I have just finished the

master list of credentials and this next, upcoming week, I will begin and hopefully finish

gathering all of the proof of CME for those who need it for our accreditation. I also began

circulating in the OR’s by myself this week, which was exciting! I have usually been mainly on

OR turnover and patient prep since I began my internship and got to shadow circulators in the

OR’s but since we were down so many people I got to do it myself and learn how to scribe for

each kind of procedure that we do which includes phlebectomy, rfa closures, varithena closures,

venaseal closures, ligations, and oesch.

1. One characteristic that I have noticed in a lot of our patients is a trend in occupations.
Many teachers, nurses, hairdressers, and people who stand very frequently at their jobs
are our most common patients. Another big issue in a lot of our patients is genetics.
Vein disease is hereditary, and I would say that probably around half of our patients
have relatives with the same problems that they endure. When our patients come to
see us, it is usually due to leg pain or leg swelling. The pain and swelling limits their
activities of daily life. We assess these feelings by asking each patient to complete
quality of life questionnaires. This tells us more about how their daily activities are
affected by their vein disease and how their mental health and emotions are affected
due to their symptoms. We also really stress the importance of conservative care and
prevention methods. We suggest wearing compression socks/hose, elevating your legs,
limiting use of high heel shoes, and exercising regularly. In the case that our patients do
not have vein disease or vein insufficiency and we find that they have lymphedema or
lipedema, we discuss prevention and treatment methods for that too. In a lot of cases,
compression socks won’t do the trick for these diagnoses and so we refer them to our
occupational therapists for treatment but also give them information about prevention
in their specific cases. For lipedema, it is completely genetic and there are no cures. We
give them informational pamphlets and handouts with information on how to reduce
 inflammation in their bodies. An example of this would be the RAD diet, which is a diet
dedicated to eating foods that reduce inflammation. In addition to giving this
information to customers who come in, Vein Specialists of the South has a big social
media and networking presence. They post a lot of information about vein disease and
prevention on their social media accounts, the radio, and tv commercials. They also
offer free vein education and evaluation clinics about once a month to people who have
concerns. I honestly think that where I work does an amazing job of addressing these
risk factors and helping people by spreading information about prevention of vein
disease and swelling disorders.

One thing I see a lot in my internship that I learned about in classes are health policies. We
practice HIPAA and OSHA guidelines daily at Vein Specialists of the South to ensure privacy and
safety measures. I would say that the organizational culture is a little bit of both formal and
informal. It is very structured in the OR’s and the office, but since the practice is small, everyone
kind of works together as a big team. We like to play and joke around all while keeping busy
and getting everything done that needs to get done. I also love how all of the job positions work
together so well and respect each other no matter what position you have. I was surprised to
see how much everyone gets along and how everyone has good, fun energy because it really
makes it a very enjoyable environment.