My Family Medicine Rotation
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Kingston, NY
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Core rotation #4 - 6 weeks
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Services: Inpatient and Outpatient
- Inpatient: Since only 2 students rotated here, one student was assigned inpatient service at 8am until lunch followed by clinic in the afternoon for 3 weeks. The other student at that time would only be in outpatient. Then, the roles were switched . You worked with one provider (NP or MD) and would look at the patient list, assign yourself a patient and visit/examine them.
- Outpatient: You worked with one of the residents (and if no residents, then preceptor) and performed an H&P, reported to the resident and attending and the resident would visit and check everything. You also performed any procedures needed (pap smear, vaccinations, etc)
- Lectures: Student meeting where you submitted 3 H&P notes per week as well as listened to mini student presentations in the morning followed by resident lectures in the afternoon. This was held at a different hospital about 45 minutes away. ​
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Tools: Stethoscope, notebook, pen, penlight
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Resources: UW ABFM questions, AAFP, NBME practice shelf exams
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ABOUT
Me
Kandria Ledesma, MD
Emergency Medicine resident
NJ -> Antigua -> NY -> CA
Medicine, Running, Birds, Plants, Food, Dinos
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Useful Phone Apps: Epocrates (helps with drug names, indications, dosing), UptoDate (information), ePSS (health prevention screening and indications), Core: Clerkships (helpful information for each core rotation)
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​Overall thoughts: I HIGHLY recommend. Family Medicine was a new specialty for me therefore everything was new. I learned a lot about national recommendations for screening and prevention as well as learned how to do a lot of procedures. All the residents and attending physicians are so kind, caring, and knowledgeable. They are willing to teach students and will let them perform procedures (supervised, of course). Both hospitals were nice as well and provided free breakfast and lunch for the students and residents. The rent for the house I stayed at was also very well priced for 6 weeks and it was a two minute drive every day! Because of this rotation, I considered doing electives in FM and considered applying to this specialty.
My Family Medicine Elective
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#1: Kingston, NY (elective rotation #5) - 4 weeks
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Services: Inpatient and Outpatient
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Inpatient: Sign out starts at 7am with the medicine team and then the students are assigned patients by the PGY-3 in charge. I then worked on charting with the resident who was also assigned the patient and write the SOAP note for the day as we wait for the attending provider to start round. Rounds last about 2 hours (maybe more) and then we continue managing the patients and then have lunch. Afterwards, we meet again and discuss what else we need to do and can go in to different procedures and help out the medicine team​. We also are in charge of admissions so if paged, we go to the ED to admit a patient. We also work on the patient list for the night team.
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Outpatient: I only did outpatient afternoons during my last week of my rotation for variety. I went to the clinic (10 mins away) after lunch and follow a resident.
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Lectures: All day Wednesday
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Tools: Stethoscope, notebook, pen, penlight
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Resources: As above
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Overall thoughts: As you can tell, this was the same place I completed my core rotation. I still really loved this rotation. I didn't learn as much with medicine and during inpatient service when I did IM therefore this rotation taught me everything. The residents are so kind and knowledgeable and the attendings are great. It was fun working with both of them and interacting with the patients in upstate NY. I received an LOR as well by one of the providers I worked closely with. I would highly recommend this rotation for anyone interested in Family Medicine since this hospital is an unopposed program.
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#2: San Jose, CA (elective rotation #8) - 4 weeks
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Services: Inpatient and Outpatient
- Inpatient: Both elective and core students meet around 6am at the hospital to round on our attending's patients. We review the chart and then see the patient(s).
- Outpatient: After morning rounds at the hospital, we go to his clinic (across the street) by 8am and each student takes a patient, brings them in the rooms, does vitals and the physical exam, and types the findings on the EMR. We also provide a laboratory slip since most of these patients are here for a follow up. The attending then will see the patient with you in the room.
- Lectures: None but at the end of the day (around 7, 7:30pm) we gather in a group and talk about 1 thing we learned that day. Then we have to list 3 things learned for each day in the WhatsApp Group we are a part of
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Tools: Stethoscope
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Resources: As above
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Overall thoughts: This rotation definitely had long hours (6am-7,7:30pm) however I definitely learned a lot. I had never worked extensively on EMRs but our attending really gave us full freedom with the EMR in terms of H&P as well as putting in the CPT codes and even prescribing and sending medications to the patient's pharmacy. We also were allowed to give vaccinations and other IM injections needed for the patient. A plus were the pharm reps who provided lunch pretty much every day of the week! I also loved how our attending spent a lot of time with each patient which I am sure satisfies them. It's really great to make connections and get to learn your patients and their families. I enjoyed this rotation a lot especially with the other students I worked with (shout out to Hieu and Happy!) which made my day better.
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