OPMSA Meet-and-Greet: Fernando Cruz, Director of Clinical Affairs Elect

This handsome devil to the left is Fernando Cruz. If you have spent any time around the recreation room at the school you may know him better by his ping-ping pseudonym "The Hummingbird."

Fernando is the OPMSA Director of Clinical Affairs Elect. Along with just being a simply stellar guy, these are some of the things he does for you:

• Coordinates, represents and meets with the Class Clinic Representatives.
• Acts as the liaison between students, clinic administrators, and faculty clinicians.
• Assist the Director of Clinical Affairs (Saleena) with the Annual OPMSA Clinical Symposium.
• He's responsible for the OPMSA Instrument program.
• Assists all other OPMSA officers in their duties and responsibilities.
• Attends all OPMSA Executive Board meetings.
• Coordinates the Annual OCPM Spirit Week.

So basically what I'm telling you is that Fernando is kind of a big deal. He'd never tell you that but I'm not him so I will.

Here is what he had to say about himself:


Hometown: Lexington Park, MD

About Me: I went to undergraduate school in Greensboro, NC at Guilford College where I double majored in Sports Medicine and Health Science. While in college I also played football. I absolutely love sports and sports medicine, definitely something I would like to work with through podiatry.

Why I decided to become a Podiatrist: I decided to become a podiatrist because the lower extremities of the body are so precious and important to us that I would like to help people take care of them and keep the lower limbs feeling younger.

My hero: My hero is my mother because she is the hardest working person I ever knew, she never gives up when going gets tough, and she puts people before herself. 

My amazing talent: I have an amazing laugh. It has the affect to make others laugh as well, even if they are just laugh at me and not with me.

Advice for new podiatry students: The advice I would give to new podiatry students would be to study hard, try not to stress out about stuff that you cannot handle, and try not live in the past, focus on the present. 

Favorite restaurant in CLE: Winking Lizard. 

My favorite book: "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. 

What I do when test weeks are over: When a test week is over, I usually just relax for that day. But the next day I start catching up on classwork or start getting ahead in classes. 

My favorite study music: My best study music is R&B music. 

If I had 30 mins of free time this is what I'd be doing: If I had 30 minutes of free time, I would mostly likely be watching some sort of medical show on Netflix or Hulu Plus. Mostly likely it would be either Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, or Nip Tuck.

The best advice I was ever given: "Sometimes to be successful, you must give up who you are for what you will become."

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OPMSA Meet-and-Greet: The Good, The Not-So-Bad, & The Ugly

With all organizations and clubs around the school it sometimes gets a little bit confusing figuring out who is who and who does what. In effort to throw you a bone, we wanted to give you the low-down on your OPMSA Board members and let you get to know us a bit. Periodically we'll highlight one of our board members and let them give you the 'one-two' of who they are and what they do.

Believe it or not, we are here for you and want to get to know you too so please introduce yourself at school. Maybe if you know who we are it'll be easier for you to come and chat with us. Look for the 'OPMSA Meet-and-Greet' posts in the near future.

~ Doc

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Dressing for success (in clinic)

If you're a 3rd or 4th year student, you might feel somewhat left in the dark about where you can get your scrubs and white coats for clinic. If you've gained the '1st Year 40' like many of us did, there is a good chance that your white coat doesn't button any more (it's okay, mine didn't either). Likewise, at the beginning of 3rd year no one is standing around with a sign telling you what color of green will keep you from getting sent home from clinic.

Hopefully I can help. Here is what you need to know about your clinic attire and where you can get it on the cheap:

White Coats

The white coat you got when you started at KSUCPM is a Landau Consultation Coat (product code: 3224). It is 30" in length and has a 3-button front. They are sized in suit jacket sizes so you will either need to measure yourself or go and try on a blazer at a local department store in order to figure out your size (Warning: Landau jackets tend to fit a tiny bit small so if you're between sized or have love-handles like me, you're better off going up a size). Remember that the idea of the coat is to protect you clothes from blood, flying nails and all other types of nasty so getting it a bit bigger can be helpful.

Here's the problem - Landau coats are nice but being nice comes at a price. So, to help save you some moola, here are some places you can buy them and some other options that aren't by Landau but work just as well and will save you a few bucks:

White Swan Men's Meta Consultation Coat ($14-17 from Amazon) - the material is a bit thinner than the Landau but I actually prefer it because the material isn't as hot and I don't sweat as much when I'm getting pimped. I own 2 of these.

White Swan Ladies Meta Consultation Coat ($14-17 from Amazon) - the ladies version.

Dickies Everyday Men's Lab Coat ($23 from Amazon) - A word of warning: this coat is an inch or so longer than the ones we wear so although I doubt it would matter at all, don't blame me if someone sends you home.

3rd year scrubs

If you look in the KSUCPM student handbook you'll see that 3rd years are required to wear "green" scrubs to clinic. Sounds easy, right!? Not so. Unfortunately there is only one color of green that we are allowed to wear and it's called 'surgical green'. More specifically, the exact color of surgical green that we are allowed to wear is only made by one company that I'm aware of: Cherokee. What makes it tough is that there aren't too many places that carry this color of scrub. From what I've found, here are you options:

Online:
Amazon.com
Allheart.com
ScrubsandBeyond.com

Locally:
Affordable Uniforms - if you're buying locally, this is probably the best place to find them. They are a fair price and have a decent selection of this color. The have several locations in Cleveland.
Matthews Medical Bookstore - 9451 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44106
Life Uniform - multiple locations in the Cleveland area but selection is limited for the color we need so call ahead.

4th year scrubs

Although half of your 4th year will be spent on externships at residency programs of your picking, while you are at the school's core rotations, you are expected to wear the 4th year scrubs which are described as "blue" in the student handbook. This specific blue is once again a color produced by Cherokee that they call 'Navy'. Although this is a slightly more common color among scrub companies, you are probably better off just getting Cherokee brand scrubs so that you cover your tail. You can get them at the same places as the 3rd year scrubs but here are the links to this specific color online:

Amazon.com
Allheart.com
ScrubsandBeyond.com

4th year clinical attire for externships

Most (but not all) programs where you will choose to do your elective externships will require that you wear business attire and a white coat. It is important that you check the requirements of each program you are visiting to see whether scrubs or fancy duds are required. Showing up in the wrong outfit will certainly not be a good start to securing a residency.




~ Doc

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OPMSA Journal Club

OPMSA has decided to put together a weekly student-lead journal club. For those of you who are getting ready to go on externships, this can save you from embarrassing verbal diarrhea in front of an attending. For the rest of you, you will get incredible exposure to the tricks of our trade.

No matter where you are in your path to being a podiatric physician, the more you know, the better doctor you'll be!

Here's the idea:

At the beginning of each month we will send out links to a keystone article(s) on current topics in podiatry.

1st Week of each month - a keystone article will be presented & discussed.
Following 2 weeks - we'll send out more current articles discussing newer treatments & theories.
4th week - Grand Rounds will present a case on the topic we've been discussing for the previous 3 weeks.

Beautiful, right? Now you don't have go into Grand Rounds and have no idea of what's going on. These are the same articles you are going to be asked about in clerkships so it is an awesome opportunity!

THIS IS HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE:

Show up!

When: Every week. Check your email for details.
Where: Classroom A
What: Feel free to review last week's journal articles to further understand this month's Grand Rounds topic.

Seriously,  we'd love for you guys to read the articles before you come but if you can't its not a big deal. Someone will be presenting on the article and telling us what we should be taking away from it. We will then open the topic up for discussion.

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Welcome to the new OPMSA blog!

Now that we are Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine, it is time for OPMSA to get a face-lift! We hope that by providing an easy to access blog, you can better access the information you need. You will soon be able to find an up-to-date calendar of events, current editions of our Footprints newsletter and regularly updated news to keep you in-the-know with everything at the CPM.


If you think of ways we can improve the blog or make your life easier, shoot one of us an email and we'll try to accomodate. Life is hard enough as a podiatry students. Hopefully we can help simplify your existence by putting everything in one place.


OPMSA represents you as students so we're here for you. Give us a high five or fist-bump when you see we're doing a good job and feel free to beat us with wet spaghetti noodles when we're not. 


~ Stewart 'Doc' Pierson, OPMSA Director of Communications

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