The past few weeks have been pretty busy for me, but this past week has definitely been the highlight of my medical school career thus far.
All the students in ICM have to rotate 5 times at the hospital here. So on Thursday, I went for my first one - paediatrics. We (four students) were introduced to the two doctors on the floor, who then took us around to all the pre-nates in the hospital wing. A few of them were contained in incubators while others were in glass cribs. They looked so tiny and fragile. As we visited each baby, the doctors explained to us why each of them had been admitted to the hospital. The cases ranged from HIV-positive mother to jaundice to suspected viral infections. The doctors asked us questions pertaining to the conditions unique to each individual. It was a very straight forward visit and within the hour we were done and made it to class before the end of the first lecture.
On Friday, we had our internal medicine rotation. The doctor greeted us and took us to see a few of his patients. Unlike the babies, these patients responded to our questions, which then prompted much discussion of differentials from the presented symptoms and patient history. It was much more detailed and thorough, and by the end of it we were all scratching our heads and pondering on a diagnosis. Internal medicine is more about treating the root cause of the symptoms, and each case is like a mystery that has to be solved, and all the clues come from the patient. So far the two rotations have only made me realize how much more I have to study before I am ready to write the Step!
On Sunday (today), I went to the hospital to meet with one of the ER doctors, who is also one of the professors for ICM. I had asked her earlier that week for an opportunity to shadow her at the ER and she enthusiastically agreed to let me and another student come in for the day. We were supposed to be there for 4 hours from 11-3, but we ended up leaving close to 7 PM. First thing when we got to the hospital we were greeted by the Dean and the CEO of the school himself, followed closely by two men with a lot of heavy photography equipment in tow. We quickly realized that we weren't just going to be in the ER that day. They told us that they (the school) wanted some footage of students in the hospital and interacting with patients. So we spent a good chunk of the morning filming and interviewing. I'm excited to see the finished product. After that we were ushered to the ER and we got to work seeing our patients for that day. We saw about a dozen patients in the span of seven hours. There were two patients that needed stitches, three patients with viral infections, a young woman with Dengue fever, a man with a bad case of constipation and suspected pancreatitis who was in so much pain he needed to be given pain killers IV, two patients with bronchiectasis, a child with a broken clavicle, and a few kids with mild GI complaints. Nothing too dramatic. But after seeing the distressed parents of young patients, I realize that for them it is serious and upsetting. The first goal of the doctors was to stabilize the patient before assessing the condition. What surprised me a little was that even though it was the ER, there wasn't really a feeling of urgency. Nothing was rushed. Everything was done at a steady pace, and the doctors spent time explaining to patients or their caregivers before discharging them. It was probably because none of the cases were too severe that there was no need to rush. There was a steady flow of patients to the ER and the time passed by without us even noticing it because we were kept so busy. It was very interactive and definitely my favourite rotation so far. I plan on going back after block 2.
At the end of the day, we went to Maho to get frozen yogurt and then watched the sun set behind the waters in Simpson Bay before going home and collapsing into bed!
The past few weeks have been pretty busy for me, but this past week has definitely been the highlight of my medical school career thus far.
All the students in ICM have to rotate 5 times at the hospital here. So on Thursday, I went for my first one - paediatrics. We (four students) were introduced to the two doctors on the floor, who then took us around to all the pre-nates in the hospital wing. A few of them were contained in incubators while others were in glass cribs. They looked so tiny and fragile. As we visited each baby, the doctors explained to us why each of them had been admitted to the hospital. The cases ranged from HIV-positive mother to jaundice to suspected viral infections. The doctors asked us questions pertaining to the conditions unique to each individual. It was a very straight forward visit and within the hour we were done and made it to class before the end of the first lecture.
On Friday, we had our internal medicine rotation. The doctor greeted us and took us to see a few of his patients. Unlike the babies, these patients responded to our questions, which then prompted much discussion of differentials from the presented symptoms and patient history. It was much more detailed and thorough, and by the end of it we were all scratching our heads and pondering on a diagnosis. Internal medicine is more about treating the root cause of the symptoms, and each case is like a mystery that has to be solved, and all the clues come from the patient. So far the two rotations have only made me realize how much more I have to study before I am ready to write the Step!
On Sunday (today), I went to the hospital to meet with one of the ER doctors, who is also one of the professors for ICM. I had asked her earlier that week for an opportunity to shadow her at the ER and she enthusiastically agreed to let me and another student come in for the day. We were supposed to be there for 4 hours from 11-3, but we ended up leaving close to 7 PM. First thing when we got to the hospital we were greeted by the Dean and the CEO of the school himself, followed closely by two men with a lot of heavy photography equipment in tow. We quickly realized that we weren't just going to be in the ER that day. They told us that they (the school) wanted some footage of students in the hospital and interacting with patients. So we spent a good chunk of the morning filming and interviewing. I'm excited to see the finished product. After that we were ushered to the ER and we got to work seeing our patients for that day. We saw about a dozen patients in the span of seven hours. There were two patients that needed stitches, three patients with viral infections, a young woman with Dengue fever, a man with a bad case of constipation and suspected pancreatitis who was in so much pain he needed to be given pain killers IV, two patients with bronchiectasis, a child with a broken clavicle, and a few kids with mild GI complaints. Nothing too dramatic. But after seeing the distressed parents of young patients, I realize that for them it is serious and upsetting. The first goal of the doctors was to stabilize the patient before assessing the condition. What surprised me a little was that even though it was the ER, there wasn't really a feeling of urgency. Nothing was rushed. Everything was done at a steady pace, and the doctors spent time explaining to patients or their caregivers before discharging them. It was probably because none of the cases were too severe that there was no need to rush. There was a steady flow of patients to the ER and the time passed by without us even noticing it because we were kept so busy. It was very interactive and definitely my favourite rotation so far. I plan on going back after block 2.
At the end of the day, we went to Maho to get frozen yogurt and then watched the sun set behind the waters in Simpson Bay before going home and collapsing into bed!
