Still planning....

Randolph Co: The most beautiful county in North Carolina

I have to admit throughout my entire medical school experience my southern accent has been a curse! Lets be honest, there is nothing about a southern accent makes you sound smart in morning rounds. Finally, having a southern accent and being from a small town pays off! (The may be the only course in all of medical school that this is the case) I have truly enjoyed talking with the farmers on the phone. There is something nice about telling someone your hometown and then figuring out that we know some of the same people or that they know some of my kin. I have been pleased with their willingness to have me come out to the farms and do some medical outreach for their workers. Seriously though, you have to admit, if you were a farmer and someone from Chapel Hill with a Northern accent called you and asked you if they could visit your farm and talk with your workers, you would say "yeah right!" If you don't believe me just get on the internet and do some research, like I have done in the past week, and you will find what the farmer owners are up against!

Well this has been a busy week of planning for the farm visits. I researched and found almost 40 different farms in Randolph County. There are a variety of farms here in Randolph County: curb side vegtable stands, large produce production farms, Tobacco, Soy, corn, and dairy farms. And I called them all! The rest of my time was spent preparing my talk on heat strokes. I have reviewed some of the case reports of NC farmworker deaths from heat stroke. I may use some of these case reports, if the opportunity presents, with the farm owners. We can discuss in each case what the farm owner or farmworker themself could have done differently to prevent the heat stroke and death. Monday was spent again in the Hispanic Clinic at Moses Cone Family Practice. This has turned out to be a valuable learning experience and a great way to practice my medical spanish. Just curious....do you know how hard it is to do a Nuero exam in Spanish? Well...I do! ha ha Like I said, great practice! Dr. Hale and Dr. Breen are great teachers and very patient with me. Also, I spent 3 hours with my tutor, Cathy, this week. We meet at a local coffee shop and work intensely on my Spanish. (today was the subjunctive tense, yuck!) She actually makes it a lot of fun. She is getting her masters right now in Spanish education at UNCG. She is a great teacher. I am glad I found her. OK that is it for now. I will post more next week!

Also a BIG THANK YOU to Chatham Cares Pharmacy, Chatham Hospital Diabetes Education Program, and True Track Monitors who have donated Blood glucose monitors, strips and other testing supplies so that I can do the medical outreach on the farms!