My last and final patient

One the last day of clinic I had one competency to finish and that was an AP. I was looking forward to finishing out all my competencies this semester and having a smooth last clinic session. I called my patient the day before and right before the appointment started to confirm if he would be coming in. Unfortunately he did not answer and failed to show up. However I did not let this bad news defeat me. I went to the dental hygiene clinic and helped a classmate out who was scheduled with two patients that day.

I must admit I was a little anxious about taking this patient because I did not have the time to go over his medical history or look at his chart prior to the clinic session. But I worked with the patient and faculty to try and get as much as I could done in that appointment. We did not get started until about three o'clock but I was still pretty positive we could at least start the prophy today. Boy was I wrong. This patient had an extensive medical history. Much of which I had never encountered with a previous patient. However the patient was very cooperative and patient with me.

When it was time to get his dental exam I was explaining the significant appearances in his medical history. I was asked why this patient was taking a specific medication and assumed it was for one of the conditions he had. When I gave my answer I was asked to explain what that condition was. My mind went blank. i honestly did not know. Therefore I explained to the faculty I was unsure. I was assigned by the faculty to look it up and report back to them.

I was thinking to myself, "I really do not need another assignment right now". However that night something the faculty mentioned became really clear to me. He wanted to know if I had asked my patient about the condition. And my answer was no. Later in the appointment I found out my patient knew exactly what his condition was and could tell me a lot about it. This is when I found the lesson in this assignment. One valuable lesson I learned is that faculty are not here to spoon feed you information but to guide you to recognize what the answers are. In addition I learned that many patient know plenty of information on the conditions from which they are suffering and medications that are taking. I have had patients in the past that were clueless about their medications and it was easy for me to assume that about this patient. This has taught me that not only can I educate my patients but they can educate me as well.