Summer Intern Update: Castle Orthopaedics

Justin Rehder

Biochemistry, College of Arts and Sciences

Castle Orthopaedics - Intern

This summer I had the privilege of interning at Castle Orthopaedics centered in Oswego, Illinois. Castle Orthopaedics is aligned with Rush-Copley Medical Center stationed across the street from their main office on Ogden Avenue. Throughout the internship, I observed at the three office buildings Castle physicians see patients in. 

My role during the internship was to observe and soak in as much information as possible in the limited time I had. I took notes during the appointment sometimes having to finish writing down all the information after the appointment was over. I also made sure to ask each question I had in a timely and appropriate manner. Schinsky and his team was more than willing to answer any question I had going into deep detail to teach me as much as possible. Besides information, Schinsky illustrates how a physician should treat his patients. He connects and interacts with his patients in a professional and comforting manner. Sometimes this is difficult because of the extreme pain most of the patients are in, yet he makes it look effortless. An important part of an appointment with pre-op and early post-op patients is setting expectations. He continually assures pre-op patients that they will have a great recovery, and tells struggling post-op patients that they will continue to progress. After the first couple weeks the staff got acclimated to my presence and I got acclimated to the office. My responsibilities expanded to retrieving supplies to help out especially with injections or casts. This helped me learn even more about the dynamics of how the office runs.

This internship has only made me more certain about my decision to pursue the medical field. One of Rob’s post-op patients wanted to see Schinsky for just a second to give a hug. We had a conversation about the only thing more valuable than life, quality of life. Waking up cringing in pain each day isn’t living. So, when that woman gave doctor a hug and said “Thank you for my life back”, I knew this was what I wanted to do.