This was a hard rotation for me. Not because of the material but because of the patients. I spent one week with adolescents in an inpatient psych unit. Many of these kids were there because of suicidal/self-injury ideations. I had never actually seen fresh wounds from where someone had recently cut themselves. Some of their stories were heart-breaking. I often heard these kids reveal how horrible the friends and parents treated them. I tried to offer some counseling. After a week, I wondered if...
I have spent the last 12 weeks at this practice learning Women’s Health from a Nurse Practitioner. Sadly, you’ll never get to know who she is. However, she is one of the most incredible NPs I’ve ever met. Her approach to patient care is refreshing and I can tell that she makes me think outside the box. After spending so long learning things from a medical perspective, there are so many things I hadn’t considered because of my proverbial blinders. She allows me...
The first End of Rotation week consisted of me giving a presentation about a case study of hyperbilirubinemia to my class (a patient that I saw in my rotation) and taking my EOR exam. These exams are standardized across the country and every PA student will take the same exam specific to that rotation. I felt that the methods that I used to prepare for this exam wasn’t enough to help me feel confident after I began the exam. It was much harder than I expected. Fortunately, I passed...
I once had a student in the class before mine tell me that the problem with clinical rotation is that by the 4th or 5th week, you have really gotten the hang of things, made so many friends, and are comfortable on your own. The problem is: it’s over soon and you have to go somewhere else and start over. He was right. I am having so much fun and feel pretty good about my progress so far. I am fortunate that I can stay at this location for another 6 weeks, but I think that it’s going...
My little clinical procedures book is starting to fill up! This week, I got to do more Pap smears and suturing. At Urgent Care, I drained a huge hematoma. At the main office, I was able to assess fetal heart tones, measure fundal height for some OB patients, and drain a ganglion cyst. I was super excited about getting a chance to do that. The physician told me that if I wanted to do it, I would have to research everything about ganglion cysts, look up the procedure, and present to her what my...
I worked with the same physician from last week. I got a chance to show a few of my strengths, mostly pulmonary stuff. We talked a lot about asthma and COPD. She also let me weigh in on some spirometry results! I didn’t feel completely worthless! #rotationgoals I got to see a circumcision this week. It’s actually very interesting. I keep missing a chance to see a vasectomy. One day. I started re-practicing putting in interrupted sutures on Wednesday and I got a chance to do some the...
Second week went great! On Tuesday, our class went back to the campus for a welcome dinner with the Class of 2020 and our families. I was very excited to tell the faculty how my rotation has been going. I am surprised how fast you have to see patients at an Urgent Care. The provider is given 7.5 minutes to see the patient before the next one is roomed. I am certainly not that fast yet! I try though but the quickest I can see one on my own is about 10 minutes…for something very basic. I am...
In our clinical rotations, students have a booklet for clinical procedures we must perform. Some of them are very basic while other can be a bit more complicated. Each rotation has under 10 things that one should try to do in the 6 weeks they are at that site. if you are able to do things in others areas, then kudos to you. I was a bit pleased to find out that I will be having Tuesdays off for this rotation. I showed up on my first day of my first rotation expecting to just be going through...
I am hoping to take the PANCE on the earliest day that I can: September 27, 2019. If I am going to do that, I will have to follow a strict study schedule over the year. So, I made one. For each rotation, I plan to spend the week studying my rotation. On the first 4 weekends, I will study each of the body’s systems to prep for the PANCE and the second two weekends studying my rotation to prep for the End of Rotation exam. I intend on using the PANCE blueprint to guide my studying. I will...
It feels weird to not be studying. I mean, I earned this break. There’s still plenty to learn and I have a huge plan to do it but it feels weird that I don’t have any obligation to right now. I have Stockholm Syndrome. I was just saying weeks ago that I was SO DONE…now I’m here I am and I sort of miss it. I don’t miss the stress…no way. I miss learning new things. The difference now is that, unlike before, I can learn what I want on my schedule. There were...
