1. How could the knowledge I’ve gained here be applicable in other rotations/disciplines?

The knowledge I’ve gained during this rotation was very valuable and I believe is applicable to other rotations in the future as well. This is due to the fact that in this rotation I not only learned about diagnosing acute illness and learning to differentiate emergent cases from non-emergent cases. One example of this was when we were asked to do a consult on a patient with an extremely large inguinal hernia. Upon seeing this rather large hernia, my initial instinct was that this patient will need surgery immediately based on the size. I was shocked when the resident explained to the patient that they will need to schedule a surgery date and that they are free to go home for right now. It was later that I learned the importance of being able to know and distinguish emergent cases from non-emergent cases. This can be applicable on other rotations such as my next rotation, family medicine, so I can know when the patient needs to go to the ER right away or the problem is rectifiable by us. Additionally, I learned about effectively managing your time during this rotation. This is helpful in other rotations since in the future no matter what field of medicine you practice in, as a provider we will have to manage a high volume of patients.  

2. Skills or situations that are difficult for you (e.g. presentations, focused H&Ps, performing specific types of procedures or specialized interview/pt. education situations) and how you can get better at them

A skill that is still difficult for me is being able to suture and close faster. It was during this rotation that I realized that suturing is a critical skill that is necessary in surgery. Another skill which I feel that I need to focus on would be to place NG tubes and performing incision and drainages. Even though I have observed multiple of these procedures, I still feel nervous and unsure about my skills to perform these procedures by myself. I believe these skills can be mastered with enough practice and by performing them by myself at least once to overcome the fear.

3. Managing new types of patients and the challenges that arise from that

One of the new types of patients that I learned to manage were patients that were resistant to our treatment recommendations. Some patients would not want the surgery when it was life threatening and others would want the surgery when it was not needed. I believe that some of these problems stemmed from the patients not properly understanding what the benefits and risks were to surgery. This can pose several challenges in trying to take proper care for our patients. I believe that I can work on making my patients better understand the recommendations by trying to understand what their reasons are for refusing to choose the recommended treatment.

4. What do you want to improve on for the following rotations? What is your action plan to accomplish that?

For my next rotation I would like to improve on being bit more resilient and accepting of the criticism that the providers provide. I believe this has remained the same since last rotation since surgery rotation was riddled with criticism by surgeons. I believe I have gotten better at accepting the criticism due to this demanding rotation but still have a long way to go. I believe I can achieve more resilience by taking criticism as a way to push me to work harder in my areas of weakness.

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