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

In family medicine, I learnt how to manage the specific conditions in private clinic setting, including annual wellness check-up, work or school health exam, driver exam, green card exam, pre-op clearance, routine follow up, and medicine refill. Secondly, there are a lot of patients with diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. I’ve learned a lot from my preceptor about how to manage these types of patients, including drug therapy, lab tests to order, and lifestyle modification. Thirdly, I learnt how to determine if the patients have serious conditions to be referred to ER or other specific conditions to be referred to specialists. According to these skills which I learned in this rotation, I know it is important to manage the patient as a whole. For example, uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia can lead to a lot of unwanted complications such as cardiovascular disease. We should not overlook the patient’s comorbidity and only treat what is bothering the patient at the moment.

Types of patients you found challenging in this rotation and what you learned about dealing with them

The type of patients I found challenging is the ones that are requesting unnecessary antibiotic. They will state a similar experience in the past and have received antibiotic from other providers. This is challenging because the patients believe that they are not being treated properly without the requested antibiotic prescriptions. In these situations, I would need to explain the indication and side effect of the antibiotic, and how antibiotic will not cure viral conditions.

How your perspective may have changed as a result of this rotation (e.g. elderly patients, kids, IV drug users, etc).

My perspective has changed for elderly patients as a result of this rotation. Before the rotation, I thought elderly patients would be very difficult to manage because they have a lot of complaints. They could be having pain everywhere, could not fall asleep at night, depressed or confused. The old patients in the private clinics are different from those to go to hospitals. Most patients are neighbors and the PA is very familiar with them and their families. One patient has been the patient of this office for more than thirty years. The physician talked with them about the things happening in their families and their lives.

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

For the following rotations, I would like to complete more procedures listed in the procedure log. For this rotation, I do not have a chance to complete procedures such as dressing changes, stable removers, and I&D. For the following rotations, I also would like to expand my experience and knowledge in dermatology. There are plenty of dermatology patients in family medicine. I often have issues describing the rash and lesion when I document them. Therefore, I plan to review my class notes and study some online pictures. The more pictures I see, the more I will be able to identify and describe them.