WEEK ONE: CHECK

Well, I survived my first week of rotations! Monday, I was just pretty much scared and anxious (mainly because I was headed into the unknown), but I did perfectly fine. After seeing about 3 patients with my preceptor, he sent me out on my own. The routine is: I go in and do my history and physical, I present my findings to my preceptor and tell him what I think is wrong and what my next actions would be, then he goes back in with me and he usually does just a little more history and physical just to cover all the bases. Tuesday, I pretty much felt like an idiot. Most of the stuff I saw, I just wasn't familiar with. Whether it was the illness, the medications, or whatever else...I just felt like I didn't know much. But I guess that's why I'm here-to learn! If I knew everything, they'd have already given me my degree. The rest of the week was a little better, and I even got to help with a few procedures. I saw about 50 patients last week! I've also been trying to find one thing everyday that I see that I'm not very familiar with, and I look into it more when I get home and make some notes about it in my log-it's proven pretty useful so far. This is so completely different than anything I've done yet...when I used to see patients, it was 1 at a time and I had to do these super long write-ups and I spent the first year sitting in a classroom...I think just adjusting in and of itself has been one of the hardest parts. One week down, tons of learning and 47 weeks left :) It's amazing what they don't manage to put in those textbooks!