Monday, July 5, 2010

Portland Art Museum and Essential Health Clinic

Last Thursday was a very long day! I had class from 8 - 12:30ish then hopped on the MAX for a trip to the Portland Art Museum. This was part of our Clinical History course, where we are learning many things, including the art of observation. The university hired docents to take small groups throughout the museum. My group started with renaissance paintings and moved forward through time to modern sculptures. I have to say that I saw differences I hadn't noticed before. In looking at paintings before and after the plague, there were discernible differences in facial expressions and the colors used. In paintings of essentially the same thing (think Christ child....it was the renaissance after all) the facial expressions after the plague were much more dour. Very cool experience.

Chihuly sculpture made of blown glass.

Outside the museum

After the afternoon of observation I caught the MAX back to the apartment and was able to relax for 30 minutes before heading off to clinic. The Essential Health Clinic is a free clinic located in Hillsboro that is staffed by volunteers, including students from our PA program. As a first year student I "shadowed" 2nd and 3rd year students during their patient exams and wrote up the subjective portion (the patient's chief complaint, symptoms, past medical history, allergies, meds) for the chart note. I was there until 10 pm and it was a great night! It was nice to be able to interact with patients again and remind myself why I am studying every waking moment.

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