Patient care is a team effort in the paradigm of modern medicine. For a medical student at a large, academic medical center, it can be difficult to identify your role on that team at times. This is especially true when it comes to the most medically complex patients- such as those routinely treated at Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University. I have been no stranger to teamwork in the past and as a third year medical student I looked forward to proving myself a useful team player. During my first inpatient medicine rotation, I began to develop my goal of being not just an excellent medical student, but a valued and essential member of the patient care team. Below is a link to a journal entry that I wrote during the early days of my first inpatient rotation.
For convenience, and to save the reader from having to interpret my handwriting, it reads:
“5/17/18
Senior resident (name redacted) (IM-Peds) discussed the importance of being early + prepared for rounds as well as following up w/ patient care throughout the day. (Consider taking on more pts?). I need to be an advocate for my patient as well as the bridge to the care team. I need to become more a part of the care team by taking initiative in expediting the process of obtaining outside medical records, labs, imaging, or anything else for the team + my patient. Continue to work on patient presentation as well as assessment + plan. Be confident, speak up, and take advantage of any and all learning opportunities.”
From early on in my third year, I was identifying ways in which I was falling short and seeking feedback for areas in which I could contribute more to the team. It would take time, but continued efforts throughout third year and the beginning of fourth year allowed me to reach a level of patient care that I am proud of. I now feel fully capable of contributing to the care team by comprehensively evaluating my own patients. This is accomplished by obtaining accurate and pertinent medical histories, conducting appropriate and thorough physical examinations, synthesizing all relevant data to generate prioritized differential diagnoses and formulating plans of care that reflect an understanding of the patient’s situation as well as the environment in which health care is delivered. Below are two excerpts from clinical performance evaluations that I felt were thorough summaries of my patient care attributes.
This comprehensive evaluation is from my Pediatric rotations, which were my final rotations of third year (April 2019). Click for larger image.
This evaluation came from my internal medicine mini-internship, which I completed August 23, 2019. Click for larger image.
Another evaluator from my mini-I wrote…
“continue to find your ideal workflow for prerounding/note writing. You did excellent this month, but next year the workload will increase and you’ll have to find ways to become faster. Nothing to really do now, but you’ll be an intern before you know it! Great working with you”.
Although I am very proud to have received such positive feedback, I am not satisfied, as I know that there is still room for improvement. I look forward to continuing to hone the excellent patient care abilities I’ve displayed during medical school in order to become a more efficient physician during residency and beyond.