The Ob/Gyn Center at Bethesda North Hospital

Mildrede Bonglack, Summer 2015

My time spent at Bethesda North Ob/Gyn Center was thoroughly educative and no doubt instrumental in my career development. When I applied to the Urban Health Project, I indicated the Ob/Gyn Center as my top choice because despite having been always interested in this specialty, I had not had much exposure to it. Once I got to clinic, the physicians and other staff at the clinic were instrumental in providing resources on how the clinic functions on a day-to-day basis and guidelines from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) on patient management as well as other study resources to adequately prepare me for clinic.

While I was relatively comfortable working with patients to obtain a medical history, there was a host of other skills I was still lacking when I started my internship. Within the first week however, with the help of the residents, I learned how to do fundal height measurement, listen for fetal heart tones with a handheld Doppler, and perform vaginal swabs and pap smears. I also became a lot more comfortable with performing patient interviews, ensuring that I posed questions that were specific and relevant to their health conditions and concerns. On occasion, I had the opportunity to be part of the inpatient team across the street from the outpatient clinic at the Bethesda North hospital. During this time I observed a D&C, a Da Vinci hysterectomy, and an external cephalic version. Besides seeing only the medical aspects of the clinic, I also got to sit in on patient meetings with the financial counselor and a social worker. This allowed me to get a full grasp of the totality of care that patients receive even beyond the examination room with the physician.

When not busy seeing patients or sitting in on meetings with them and other staff, I was working on my summer project that sought to identify women at risk for missing their postpartum care visit. The goal was to tailor perinatal patient education in the at-risk group of women in order to improve postpartum return rates. As part of this patient education goal, my project culminated in a poster indicating my findings as well as a postpartum care brochure that has been placed in the clinic for patient consumption.

I came away from my summer experience feeling more confident in my ability to communicate effectively with patients and challenged to ensure that all patients I see over the course of my career are receiving the same standard of care irrespective of their background and/or socioeconomic status.