Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Rotation 3: Infectious Diseases

Posted by 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!