When the rotation finished, I was still certain I would want to do OBGYN, but to my surprise while I was catching babies, I still missed being on the medicine team. So, I quickly learned that it was okay to be flexible, and it is okay to change your mind. The most important piece of information I had learned within those first few months was that I need to remain true to myself and make peace with the fact that although my plans have changed, I am still on my way to being the physician I came here to be. I think the surprise in this discovery was finding interest in things I had once seen as an enormous challenge, and that those very things would help me find my future specialty!
What is a "typical" day like for you?
Most days start with me trying to get some studying done before I head over to the rotation site, so I am typically waking up at 6 a.m. to do questions. Once I make it to the clinic or hospital, I try to take a glance at the patients we will be seeing for the day to mentally prepare.
Most preceptors will have you go see the patient first, and then you will present the case to them before going to see the patient again with them, so once the first patient is ready I will go see them so I can prepare my presentation. This routine will continue for the remainder of the day. Between patients we will talk about some take-away points to consider which I really appreciate.
During lunch, if I have time I will do some questions, but most days I do find myself making time to talk with my mom or just listen to music to relax. At the end of the day, I really try to prioritize getting some sort of physical activity, whether it be yoga or a quick workout at home. For the rest of the night, I study as much as I can manage and then get some rest!
How has the rotation experience helped solidify for you what you want to practice?
Rotations have greatly helped me solidify what field of medicine I would like to go into. I previously wanted to be an OBGYN, but after my first rotation, which was internal medicine, I was a little less confident about this.
After my OBGYN rotation I found myself missing my time in the hospital, and after my psych rotation I knew two things: I did not want to catch babies, and I needed to find a way to make sure that as a hospitalist I would be able to fulfill the part of me that was drawn to caring for patients’ psychiatric issues.
So, after a few conversations I was informed that there were medicine/psychiatric residency programs and immediately I knew that was what I was looking for. Rotations have also helped me determine how I would like to practice and that is a reassuring feeling to know I am moving in the right direction towards being a good physician.
What do you want people to know about what rotations are, how they work and why they are important?
Rotations are where you learn how to be a doctor!
You mainly learn how to talk to patients and get all the information you need to make a clinical diagnosis, and then use that information to develop a treatment plan. It is a real hands-on experience and has helped reinforce all the information we learn in the first two years as well as teaching us how to apply that information.