Name:  Candace Brown

Year at OU-COM: MS I

Curricular Track: CPC
 

Hometown: State Line, MS

Undergraduate Institution: Jackson State University

Favorite Quote: Learn to accept change and to be flexible.

Hobbies or Interests: Cooking, aerobic exercising, and watching movies

Favorite thing to do in Athens: Besides going to the Ping Center, I would say studying.

Area of medicine you plan to practice: Undecided at this time

What made you decide to pursue a career in osteopathic medicine vs. allopathic?

To make a long story short, I chose osteopathic medicine over allopathic medicine because it had something special to offer.  Not only can I treat a disease in a patient, most importantly I can treat the patient .  One of the gifts I find remarkable in osteopathic medical education is OMT, which can be used to diagnose and treat illness and disease.  Performing it in OMM lab and observing it in the clinical setting allows me to appreciate it and influences me to use it in the near future.   

What do you feel are the strengths/weaknesses related to your curricular track?

The strengths of the CPC include devoted faculty and staff, flexibility, and group learning on a larger scale.  The only small flaw is that the CPC resources sometimes are not readily made available for us in paper format in the LRC or on WebCT before lectures; they are a day or two late.  All in all, I enjoy CPC.
 

Tell us about your Early Clinical Contact experiences.  Do you find the ECC’s beneficial to your medical education?  Do you have any memorable ECC experiences?

Overall, my EEC experiences have been wonderful.  Attending rounds with my preceptors, Dr. Brown and Dr. Harnish, in the emergency department at O’Blenness Hospital in Athens, Ohio, has been stimulating to my growth as a student and as an individual.  Since beginning early clinical contact this fall, I have noticed that my medical education coincides with clinical experience.  Much of what I observe in the ER usually has been discussed in lecture and lab.  For the most part, I see the clinical setting as an academic reinforcement.  During my first visit to the ER, I gained valuable knowledge; it too was worth remembering.  One of my tasks that day was to obtain the chief complaint(CC) and the history of the chief complaint(HxCC) from Ms. P.  In addition, I was told to ascultate her heart and lung sounds.  Those twenty minutes turned out to be more than what I expected.  I learned that my patient needed more than a hospital stay or a  prescription.  She needed an ear, a smile and perhaps a simple touch.  That day I did just that.  On my next ECC visit I inquired about the final status of Ms. P.  Unfortunately, she died a couple of days after our initial visit.  I can only hope that I made a difference in her life like she made a difference in mines that day.


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