My Indang RHU Immersion Experience - Day 3: Registration

        Since us first and second years of the medicine program of CvSU Indang already familiarized ourselves with the facilities and regular activities of the RHU of Indang yesterday, we were able to assign ourselves to designated tasks more optimally with the guidance of the second year students. Yesterday, we split ourselves into three groups handling busy areas of the RHU: the registration area, the consultation area, and the laboratory area. Since it was decided that the laboratory area needed our assistance the least, in addition to being the place least suited to practice our knowledge in medicine, us first years were told to handle the registration area while the second years handle the consultation area. Admittedly, I was slightly disappointed when I heard the decision, especially since I was looking forward to observing the consultation interactions between the health officers and the patients, the giving of prescriptions, and the physical examinations, among other things. But I understood that since the second years have more experience in consultations, prescriptions, and other practical applications of medicine, they would be more helpful to the health officers who were acting on behalf of the doctors. They will also practice more of the things they've learned during the school year, compared to us first years who learned more theoretical knowledge—though we did had a physical diagnosis course too. 
 
        In the registration area, our main role was to make sure that patients were processed through us before they can go to the consultation area. We register patients who were new to the RHU, or get their records if they had already visited before. After they are made a new health record or we get their existing one, we get their vital signs. These include their blood pressure, weight, height, oxygen saturation, pulse rate, respiratory rate, and temperature. We also get their chief complaint, and indicate the pertinent positives and pertinent negatives. If the patient is a member or a dependent of PhilHealth too, we have them fill out a form with their information, and then we do a bit of history-taking. We were told that this was so that their PhilHealth information gets updated, and they can avail the financial assistance provided by the insurance coverage. I finally learned that this is where the taking of vital signs really occurs—not necessarily in consultation. After all of this, we finally direct the patients to the consultation room where they can wait in line right outside until it is their turn to consult with the health officers.
 
Me and my fellow first year students manning the registration area

        There was one point in the day that I'll never forget: there were so many patients in line in the registration area, and I felt really overwhelmed with the tasks and workflow—to the point where it felt as if I was temporarily stunned from not knowing which task to attend to since everything was equally in need of attention. Though I am not using it as an excuse, it might have been because I spent the whole day prior observing in the consultation room and helping fill out documents there, leading to a bit of shock when faced with the busy workings of the registration area. Luckily, a fellow first year student told me to take a quick break since they said that I looked like I needed it, and filled in for the tasks I was about to do. This gave me a short yet much needed moment to internalize and process things, as well as mentally "get in the zone" for the tasks I'm going to do for the rest of the day. That gave me a fresh mindset that helped me work through to the closing time with smooth sailing. This made me realize that as a doctor or anyone else working in healthcare, there are times that you will get overwhelmed due to stress or exhaustion, and sometimes all you need is to take a quick break to regain your composure or rest your mind, to refresh yourself and be ready for more! Thankful for the help of my peers, we end the successful day after having a productive meeting about future agendas in our immersion, together with the second years and our supervisors, Dr. Wapano, and Dr. Ramos.
Location: 6V2F+483, J. Dimabiling Street, Indang, Cavite, Philippines

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