Sarah Choi
at
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
My third rotation was, once again, very different from my
other two rotations. There were two parts to my infectious diseases (ID)
rotation. During the first half of the rotation, I rounded with an ID consult
team. I would work up patients (focusing on the antibiotics and their
infectious diseases), pre-round with my preceptor, and then attend rounds,
where I had the chance to make recommendations to the team. One of the things
that surprised me was how large the ID consult team could get with medical
students, residents, and the attending. Also, working up and presenting
patients was rather different from my previous rotation experience. There was
more of a focus on diagnosis and verifying there was an infection rather than
focusing solely on the appropriateness of treatment.
During the second half of the
rotation, I worked with the ID antimicrobial stewardship team. This involved
one project in particular where I was making recommendations for de-escalation
of antibiotic therapy. It gave me a chance to build my patient work up skills
once again and after discussion with my preceptor, I was able to communicate
recommendations to providers. The main difference with these recommendations
was that I usually didn’t have a relationship with the providers or teams, so
it was a useful experience to learn how to manage those situations. I was also
able to work on more research projects where I learned that I might actually
have an interest in research, which was something I never knew about myself.
P4 year has been great so far. My favorite
part of rotations is that I get to learn new skills, and I get to build on my
older ones. I’m excited to see how I can apply what I’ve learned during ID in
my next rotation with my general medicine rotation for my 4th block.
Until then, thanks for reading!
