FirstMed’s internist, Dr. Ágnes Hegedűs, recently attended the Spring Convention of the Urgent Care Association of America (UCAOA) in Orlando, Florida. This event, which gathers over 6,500 urgent care professionals from nearly 3,000 medical centers in the United States, focused on the latest trends and developments in urgent care and healthcare. Dr. Hegedűs had the opportunity to explore new insights and innovations in the field. Read more about what she learned at this exciting convention!
Judging from the name “urgent care,” this topic must be very useful for you at FirstMed nowadays.
The name “urgent care” could be slightly deceptive because our clinic is a multi-specialty outpatient clinic, rather than the American-style Urgent Care Center where people might arrive with a broken finger or cut requiring stitches. I found the pre-conference part really useful, where we learned new techniques and skills working in smaller groups, affording more hands-on training. During the first day, I chose to improve my casting and splinting skills, then moved on to the most up-to-date stitching techniques. It was fascinating that we used each other’s arms and legs to practice casting the application. Of course, for stitches, the volunteers were just fake tissue for us to work on.
Do you know if Hungarian medical students also use fake tissue for their hands-on experience?
No, students here tend to use pig trotters to practice stitching, which is also common in the US. The conference’s hotel would not allow organizers to bring trotters in, so we practiced on fake tissues instead.
How was the Urgent Care Association convention itself?
It was exciting. One section that clearly sticks in my mind was on the topic of diagnostic X-rays. General cases were presented that actually had some non-obvious peculiarities about them. We found that examining X-ray records was insufficient to be clear on how to make a proper diagnosis. Occasionally doctors, even with many years of experience, cannot conclude if a patient has pneumonia just from an X-ray record.
Another topic of exploration concerned evidenced-based medication, emphasizing more reliable decisions for clinical treatment and therapy. This hit home for me because FirstMed doctors need to follow sets of protocols of different nationalities / ethnicities strictly. FirstMed sees patients from six continents; different ethnicities often require different medications. I also found it interesting that the current idea of “patient care” is more closely aligned with the “way of the patient”. This means the nurses and doctors working with a patient work together as a team, helping each other to make the system as effective as possible.
What do you think you gained most from attending the conference?
In addition to the practical skills I improved, it strengthened my idea of what I would like to represent as a doctor. There is an emphasis that every doctor should be flexible and multi-faceted, that in all circumstances we should be open to listening to our patient’s problems, and of course keeping up-to-date with new skills and techniques.
FirstMed ensures its doctors and nurses stay on top of new techniques, tools, and skills to be prepared for when you are sick. In addition to attending urgent care and pediatric conventions, our team also attends specialized medicine conferences. Next month, we will hear about this from our favorite “heart” doctor, Dr. Judit Seidner.
Published on: May 16, 2016