Thursday, October 12, 2017

Block 4: GenMed

Posted by Unknown at Thursday, October 12, 2017

Hi there! I just completed my general medicine rotation and it was definitely one of the busier rotations I’ve had thus far. I’m back in the inpatient setting and thankfully, I’ve already had some inpatient experience before coming in. I felt like I was more prepared starting this rotation because I had already seen some of the cases before. Despite learning so much from my critical care rotation, I still learned a lot on this rotation! I was in adult internal medicine, which comes with a wide range of cases. Some that you see every day and some that are so rare, there are no studies out there to support a standard care of treatment. I’m amazed at how much there is left to learn and that’s what I love about pharmacy. There is always something new to learn and it will be like that for the rest of your career.

Now to my daily schedule. My day would start around 7 AM when I arrive to the hospital. I work up patients until 8 AM and then I head upstairs to meet with my preceptor for a 30 minute pre-rounds discussion. Rounds started at 8:30 for my first two attendings and 8:15 for my last attending. Each attending has a different style for rounds. Some do it as they walk from patient to patient and some do table rounds. Some go with a fast pace and some take their time with each patient. You have to learn to adjust to each style. After rounds, I would go to the team room to see if the medical residents and students had any pressing concerns regarding patients’ medications. Those concerns were on the top of my list to make sure I get back to them with an answer right away. After rounds, I would go back to my preceptor for a post-rounds discussion to update him and discuss my plan for each patient. Afterwards, I would go back up to the team room and answer any questions that they may have. I would then use the next couple of hours checking levels, making dose adjustments, preparing for topic discussion, and writing notes in patients’ charts.

At 1 PM, I would go back to my preceptor and share the levels that were drawn and the dose adjustments that I thought were appropriate. I would also go through all my notes with him to make sure they were sufficient and then we would end with our own topic discussion. For the last hour of each day, one or two students from our group would present on a journal club, disease state, or case presentation. Each of us had to present at least once a week.

I truly enjoyed this rotation because I felt like it really expanded my clinical knowledge. I also loved that my preceptor knew my weak areas and knew how to challenge me. Sometimes it was a topic discussion and sometimes he would make me study and give me an exam the next day. He wanted to make sure I walked out with that knowledge at the front of my mind at all times and for that I’m grateful.


That’s everything for now! Four blocks down, 5 to go!

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