Hello, my name is Stefan, and I am currently interning on the island of St. Croix. This is my third week interning with Dr. Gregory Moorman. This week, Dr. Moorman was able to take us to the hospital for the first time.
On Monday, July 12th, the other interns and I had an early morning getting Covid tested and orientated for the hospital. The hospital requires all volunteers or residents to get covid tested prior to starting a rotation. The hospital has very strong policies regarding HIPPA (patient confidentiality), because of how small the community here is. Later that day, Dr. Moorman was called into the emergency room. The patient was a young teenager who had gotten bitten by a pit bull. The dog had torn through the muscle leaving a complex right forearm laceration, and a simple ulnar laceration. Dr. Moorman used stitches that would dissolve on their own in time. After closing and dressing the wound completely, Dr. Moorman showed us how to write prescriptions and discharge notes. Once he had added the patient’s notes to the hospital records, we went home.
On Tuesday, July 13th, Dr. Moorman had scheduled an office day for post-operation checkups, pre-operation checkups, consultations, and injections. We observed Dr. Moorman perform many examinations, and helped write notes for the patients we observed. Every office day, Dr. Moorman teaches us how to do more on the platform Practice Fusion. He shows us the different codes for diagnosis and procedures used.
On Wednesday, July 14th, Dr. Moorman scheduled patients to get procedures done. We watched Dr. Moorman take various skin lesions off patients, and we helped prepare them for pathology. We also observed Dr. Moorman treating cysts and taking out draining tubes. Dr. Moorman further taught us how to extract medicine from their bottles and the importance of staying sterile. One procedure in particular that I found interesting, was when Dr. Moorman removed skin and tissue from a patient’s eyelid. The patient’s eyelids had enlarged, causing the patient’s vision to be impaired. By removing the skin and tissue from that area, the patient should have improved vision.
Above is a photo of the removed excess eyelid skin from one side.
On Thursday, July 15th, Dr. Moorman had scheduled a cosmetic day at his office. Therefore, most of the day consisted of Dr. Moorman injecting botox and Juvederm to treat the patient’s desired areas. Dr. Moorman decided to let us go after lunch, and we took my family’s boat to Buck Island for a peaceful afternoon. I showed Avery and Anna around the little island.
The photo on the left shows a bottle of botox, and the photo on the right is a picture of Juvederm (fillers). The bag of liquid is sterile saline (saltwater).
On Friday, July 16th, Dr. Moorman brought us to the Plessen Healthcare Center. Dr. Moorman performed another breast reduction, taking about 800 grams off each breast. This breast reduction was much larger than the last. After the breast reduction, my brother, Avery, and I went on a Buck Island sunset watch. We took a dip in the ocean and turned right back around.
On Saturday, July 17th, we were supposed to go parasailing. Unfortunately, when we arrived the store told us the boat had been broken for over a week. So instead of parasailing, we walked around the town of Christiansted before going home. My brother offered to take us to Buck Island, so we spent the day in the sun getting a tan. On Sunday, everyone wanted to have a rest day, so that’s what we did.
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