You can never sleep the night before a big day but it always seems like the you are finally getting the perfect nights sleep when suddenly that dreaded alarm clock goes off.
My eyes fly right open as the annoying iPhone alarm goes off feeling like it’s yelling “Fourth Year! Fourth Year! Fourth Year!” with each passing alarm sound. Life after Part 1 for almost all NECO 3rd was mainly trying to fill all the time we were used to filling with studying,with something else, which meant lots of sleeping in, and meeting the last few assignment deadlines till finals. Now here I am, waking up earlier than I had in months, ready to begin this new chapter of my optometry school career. To say I was nervous is an understatement. I was overthinking every possible scenario on how everything could go wrong. The past three years of hard work have all led up to this day. I mean we all dream about fourth year during first year and the idea of finally being done with all the didactic work. Then all of the sudden, the day is here and you can’t believe how fast it came. I finally roll out of bed, get ready, grab one of my perfectly meal prepped meals, and off I went to my first rotation at DotHouse Health in Boston, MA.
I won’t bore you with the specific details of how my first day went cause it was just a generic first day orientation type day, but I can paint a picture about how my first month went. It feels like I’m running a marathon, and if for any moment I slow down, I get further and further behind my target time, i.e. my lunch break or dinner break. Now, don’t get me wrong, this has nothing to do with my lack of clinical experience. NECO does an incredible job preparing you for fourth year rotations, with patient care beginning month 1 of first year, and beginning actual clinical work at the start of second year. The biggest adjustment was and still is the schedule. Each of us has specialized schedule Monday through Thursday from 8am to 8pm with each of us getting one morning or afternoon off each week and all of us getting a three-day weekend with Friday’s off. You’re probably thinking, “how can you complain about your schedule if you get Friday’s off?” You’re right, I shouldn’t complain, and I do remind myself of this great blessing constantly.
While I find the weekly schedule to be hard to handle, what’s been the absolute best part is that I have my own personal schedule, with an assortment of patients specifically assigned to me for the day from Comprehensive Eye Exams, to Briefs/Follow-Ups, Ancillary Testing, and even spend some time in the Optical Shop helping patients with finding frames. It’s really allowing me to work on my weaknesses like timing since I tend to be a chatty with patients, and continually improve my strengths.
Within the first month, I have already seen a wide array of patients, been able to make decisions in the patient’s care and have gained more confidence in my clinical knowledge. I am beyond excited to see how the second half of this rotation will go, the different cases I will get to see, be involved with and follow-up with, and just see how I improve as a Doctor-In-Training!
Good luck to all the rest of the Class of 2018 as you go through your fourth year rotations. Hard to believe that in less than a year we can all call ourselves.
Rupa N. Patel
New England College of Optometry – OD Candidate 2018
