SAK PASE!
Hey youuu, guess what!? I just finished my first rotation in medical school! I know it's only one rotation but I couldn't be more excited. So last time I posted, I told y'all that I completed two weeks of inpatient pediatrics and that I was starting outpatient pediatrics that following Monday. Welp now I'm done with 4 weeks of outpatient pediatrics. I took my pediatrics shelf exam yesterday and I just found out today that I passed. So grateful!! I'll delve into more details....
So, I did my outpatient Peds at a Pediatric clinic in Aventura. I live really close so it was great for me! So there are two Pediatricians who own the clinic and they are brothers. We also worked with two Nurse Practitioners, one more than the other.
A typical day: I get there at 8:50am and we start at 9am. Some days we see sick patients in the morning and well visits in the afternoon. Other days, it's flipped so well visits in the morning, sick patients in afternoon. The clinic is realllllyy busy so you'll definitely have lots to do. So I would go into the patient's room after the MAs finish their vitals signs. But while the MAs are doing the vital signs, I go to the patient's chart just to review their past medical history, their discharge papers from the hospital if they were recently born and any previous notes and visits at the clinic. Just to get an idea of what kind of patient I'm dealing with and what to expect in terms of medical problems and what to ask for. Next, I go to the patient's room and get an H&P (history and physical). For sick visits, I only usually ask about the chief complaint and OLD CARTS (onset, location, duration, characteristics, associated/aggravating symptoms, relieving factors, timing and severity). But for Well Visits, I ask about ERRTHANG. If the patient is a baby, I ask about feedings, dirty diapers, wet diapers, sleep, meds, and all of the above. If an adolescent, we ask about school, exercise, drugs, smoking, alcohol and we screen for depression in addition to the rest. After the history, I do a physical exam. Then I go report to the physicians or to the nurse practitioners then we go into the room together. If I have questions, I ask the doctor or the NP afterwards. Sometime the physicians sit down and give us a lecture on a case they saw at their rounds in the hospital that morning or they do a lecture on a topic that we've asked them about. Sometimes they give us uptodate articles to read then we go over it together mostly after lunch. Okay so then we get lunch...sometimes an hour, sometimes 30 minutes. Then get back to the grind in the afternoon at 1:30pm and then we go home sometimes by 5:30pm sometimes 6:45pm lol, it really depends on the day.
Like I said, it was really fast paced so there wasn't any downtime. I actually ordered some compression stockings/socks on amazon because at the end of the day my feet were swollen and IN SO MUCH PAIN that I had to elevate them when I got home. Plus I run several times a week and that's usually a task because of how much my feet hurt. Since I bought the compression stockings, my feet hurt less at the end of the day. They hurt less but they still hurt lmbo! Overall, it was a great experience, I am still very much interested in pediatrics but we'll see after I complete all of my core rotations!
I also mentioned that I took my pediatrics shelf yesterday. It was 110 questions and 2 hours and 45 minutes long. I found out today that I passed. Y'all I was scared shitless! lmaooo I finished that exam and I was scaaaared. I ran out of time and had to guess on the last few questions and there was a lot of randoms in there I didn't know and I was legit scared but to God be the Glory. He always comes through for your girl!
How did I study for my shelf? I did all 400 and something pediatric questions on Uworld. I also did a good amount of Amboss questions in the beginning of the rotation. I think around 80 or so. I did the Zanki Peds deck on the Anki app. I took two NBME Practice exams. I watched all of the Online med ed videos. I watched Emma Holiday's peds review on youtube. I watched Divine intervention's Peds review on youtube, and finallly I watched Dr. High Yield's peds review on youtube. I think that's about it. I learned a lesson for next time...I should have ran through the uworld peds questions TWICE but I only had time to run through them once and that's because I started studying too late.
It was a struggle for me to study. By the time I came home I was soooo tired. I had to run, shower, eat, study then go to bed on time. There wasn't nearly enough time in the day for all of that. But I did it!! If I could make it through this first rotation, I know I can make it through the rest!
So now I'm done with the babies, now it's time for grownups! I start the outpatient part of my INTERNAL MEDICINE rotation on Monday! I'm doing 6 weeks of outpatient at a clinic near me! Again it's only like 15 min away from me. SO SO grateful!
Alright that's all folks. Enjoy these pics below. I had to blur out a part of the second pic because of patient information lol. That pic is one of all of the students rotating at clinic.
Like usual, email me if you have any questions. But it seems like y'all prefer messaging me on IG instead so feel free to do that too, whatever's clever!
TTYL 💜
