The Third Time's the Charm

During October, on my third rotation of my third year, I fell back in love with medicine. I was assigned to a private family medicine practice about 30 minutes away. The doctor has one PA working for him, and between the two of them they keep the practice open seven days per week. He takes in students from several medical and PA programs, so I got to work with other students as well. Everything about this practice was exactly what I was looking for and had not yet encountered:

-He gives students quite a bit of autonomy to not only see and examine patients on our own, but to draw blood, give shots, and do EKGs.
-As a student, you bring the patients in and do a full history and physical, then tell the doctor your findings, what you think is wrong, and what you want to do about it. He then sees the patient with you and makes the final decisions, and you write up the chart note.
-Students have space to leave their stuff and to sit to write their notes, to eat lunch, and to study in the [rare] down time.
-Everyone on staff is incredibly friendly, and most of the patients are, too.

And most importantly: he is an amazing teacher and mentor! He quizzed me on a lot of topics, and taught me both clinical pearls and tactics for caring for patients. I literally wrote down phrases that he used with patients. It probably helped that we had very compatible senses of humor, because we joked around a lot. The days were jam-packed, so the time flew by… even that stretch where I [voluntarily] worked 14 days in a row. He challenged me to develop my own diagnoses and treatment plans – “Someday you’re going to be in my position, kid, and you won’t have someone else to turn to,” he told me one day when I wavered in my decision.

As terribly sad as I was when the short four-week rotation came to an end, I left feeling rejuvenated, even considering a career in family medicine, and beginning to feel some real confidence in my clinical skills.