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This is the last week of my first clinical rotation in PA school and I can’t believe how the time has flown! The crazy thing about these 5 week rotations is that as soon as you get comfortable at your location, it’s time to move on. My preceptor has been the absolute best and I couldn’t have asked for a better start! Just being around patients every day has made me so much more comfortable and hopefully after 15 straight months of this I’ll be prepared to start working on my own. I just have to remember what everyone always tell me- it’s okay if you don’t know everything, just know where to look it up.
Here are some highlights of my month working at urgent care:
I have become quite the pro at sports physicals. I didn’t know people came to urgent care for this, but apparently they do. I found a heart murmur on a kid while doing one of these.
I’m learning how to write prescriptions. Most are sent over electronically or printed out, but it’s still kind of fun to write them out for practice.
We’ve seen quite a few x-rays. Most are for stubbed toes or sprained ankles to make sure nothing worse is going on. I did see my first fracture the other day, a boy broke his tibia while playing basketball and you didn’t need any medical experience to see what was wrong with the picture… it was bad!
I’ve got to play with pee for urinalyses and cultures… UTIs are super common. We’ve also seen a little bit of strep and one case of mono.
As far as procedures, I haven’t got to suture anyone (I’ll get plenty of that in the ER) but I have removed some stitches. I gave a guy 3 staples in his head… that was pretty cool! One of my favorite things was doing my first I&D… that would be incision & drainage… of an abscess. Either this stuff completely grosses you out OR if you’re like my friends, you want to know all the gory details.
I really like giving shots, it’s pretty fun. This may not be part of the PA’s daily job, but we need to learn how to do it in case our help is ever needed. I’ve given a flu shot, TB skin tests, and some shots in the booty (ouch!).
I hope everyone had a great weekend- I was sick and worked but today I’m feeling much much better, and now I’m off to work another 12-hour shift. Ps. We’re halfway through September… say what?!?!
Linking with Biana and Meghan for weekending.
Gal, you have a much stronger stomach than me!! It makes my stomach turn just thinking about taking someones stitches out or doing an I & D!! I'm such a wimp. haha!! Love your recap and can't wait to see how you like your next rotation!
It sounds like you are learning so much and get to see so much! How fun to put into practice what you've been learning about for so long! I would love seeing all of the different cases each day! 🙂
I think I would have thrown up if I had to give someone staples in his head!!! So happy that you are really enjoying what you do!!
eeeeeek there is no way i could give a shot. more power to you!!
crazy that your already almost done with your first rotation! It's going to fly by before you know it! But it will be cool to look back on each rotation if you write about what you've learned and see how each 5 week experience helped you grow!
So glad your first rotation has gone well!!
I LOVED reading this recap. I could never actually do what you did, but I love reading about it! xo