Internal Medicine: Rotation Reflection

My Internal Medicine Rotation was completed in North Shore University Hospital located in Manhasset. I was glad to have my final rotation in Internal Medicine because it felt like I was able to put together everything I have learned from my previous rotations into this one since this is such an all-encompassing rotation. During these past 5 weeks, I spent most of my time working either on different floors throughout the hospital or the ED.  Our ED days were especially intensive, since we were taking in a large volume of patients throughout the day. Our days consisted of coming in at 7 and seeing our assigned patients prior to rounds. During rounds I have presented up to 10 patients on my own. I would also update the provider handoffs, go and assess the patients myself, and help the providers make calls to ECHO/lab/pharmacy/ outpatient offices to help gather collateral information or to help expedite different procedures for the patients. What I especially loved about this rotation was that our preceptor would do her best to assign us different teams based on what we were interested in. In addition to working on the floors and in the ED, I was able to join the wound care team, helping assess different staged pressure ulcers/ dressing changes/ and helping PT. I was also able to observe upper and lower endoscopies, as well as observe TAVRs and different procedures in the cath lab- which I felt was a unique experience that I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise! I was also able to practice different clinical skills such as placing IVs, straight caths, as well as foley catheters in male and female patients. Overall I felt that this was a great rotation where I was able to hone my interviewing skills and establish a strong set of differential while assessing patients, as well as learning how to treat patients/stabilize patients adequately.