In my last post, I mentioned a brief issue with my current assignment. In this post, I want to talk about the good things about my assignment.
First of all, I have been surprised about how cultural Louisville, Kentucky is. There is a diaspora of Cubans here, which is a nice comfort being away from home (Miami). Most people, including myself, expect Kentucky to be country. But since I am in the northern most part of the state, it is barely country to me. I have barely heard any accents at all. The people are absolutely lovely. Strangers say hi to me all of the time!
I appreciate living in a decent size town that does not have much traffic. I even appreciate having Kroger’s Supermarket, which is the closest thing to Publix (if you’re from Florida you understand). Chicago’s grocery stores were awful. I like Publix and Kroger’s because you can find everything you need in one store instead of having to go to multiple stores.
At work, I have already mentioned several times how great the physicians are. Not only are they nice to me but they do a really good job taking care of their patients. The patients at my clinic are very complex. More so than the ones at my clinic in Chicago. Their complexity reminds me of the patients at my clinic in Virginia (same company). However, in Virginia, there were always at least 15 patients in the hospital at any given time (from one clinic). Here in Kentucky, my clinic only has about 5 or less patients in the hospital at any given time. Which I think is amazing since these are some of the sickest patients I have ever seen. This shows how much the patients trust their PCPs and how much their PCPs care about them.
I have also noticed that the majority of the patients are still smoking. Some days it feels as if 75% of them are still smoking compared to the usual 10% I am used to. I heard that Kentucky is the 2nd highest state with smokers in the USA. So that makes sense why these patients are so sick.
Anyways, back to my work environment. All of the staff are very friendly. From the front desk to the referrals team – everyone makes sure to say good morning or ask how your day is going. Sometimes it’s nice to get away from big cities, even for just a short period of time.
Now as far as what I have been doing on my free time…
Kentucky has a forest with over-sized wooden trolls! They are from the same artist from the arboretum I visited in Chicago! I love places that have cool walking paths. Kentucky is also home to Mammoth Cave National Park. This park contains the longest cave system in the world.
Louisville itself has some cool landmarks too. I checked out the Muhammad Ali Center which was interesting, since he was born here. Of course I passed by Colonel Sanders Grave – hello Kentucky Fried Chicken. I also visited Thomas Edison’s house, the American inventor.
