This rotation was the most enjoyable so far, it had long hours but I was constantly learning and participating on every aspect of patient care. I was able to practice blood draws, venous access, ABG, VBG, more than my previous rotations. This experience will allow me to be more prepare for my next rotation in pediatrics.

I volunteer on doing fecal disimpaction, it was a new type of procedure, I was glad it helped the patient to relieve his abdominal pain and avoided surgery. The main reason I volunteer for this procedure was to have a feel on how comfortable I would be if I work as GI specialist. It was a little bit too much for my stomach but I am glad for the experience.

One of the new kind of patients during this rotation, were those in palliative care. In this case, it was not only taking care of the patient but also the needs and feelings of the family members or friends. Another challenge was to listen to the patient’s heart beat while she was in a respirator. The loud noise from the respirator made it impossible to hear her heart sounds. I was able to check for her pulse, so that helped.

I was very pleased in this rotation and so were my preceptor and colleagues, they noticed I was hard working and driven person, I would try any procedure or technique they asked. They liked my I was always willing to learn. Once they asked me to try to remove a patient’s ring since her finger’s edema was becoming dangerous and the ring could cut her finger’s circulation. At first I tried soap, lubricant, force. I never gave up, and went to the ER to get the ring-cutter and then we successfully removed the ring.

Another reason why I enjoyed this rotation, was the great preceptor I had, Dr. Valeus, spent every round teaching us why we came out with the diagnoses and he specially was dedicated on teaching us how to interpreted EKGs. everyday we had different EKG to interpreted, which helped me greatly to now understand and be able to interpret any EKG. Repetition and daily enforcement of knowledge is the best way to learn.

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