One of the most valuable practices I’ve learned in medical school was the importance of preventative care and health promotion. I was first exposed to preventative care early on in medical school through a community health project I completed after my first year. The goal of my project was to teach children ages 10-12 about important topics such as health, nutrition, exercise, safety, and stress management. I worked with a team of 5 other medical students to create weekly lesson plans and activities. We started with an assessment of the students’ baseline knowledge using a survey. We would use weekly surveys to gauge how well the students learned from each lesson. We distributed a final survey during the last class and found out that the majority of the students felt more comfortable with understanding previously difficult concepts. At the end of this project, we presented a poster to summarize the impact of this project. The students specifically showed improvement in remembering proper portion sizes based on “My Plate,” reading nutrition labels, and understanding the health risks associated without proper diet and exercise. I really appreciated this project, because not only did we get to teach children about health, but also we were able to expose them to the concept of preventative health. For example, after our lesson on nutrition labels, we had an activity showing some long-term health effects from malnutrition.
I was able to further my knowledge in this area of medicine through my family medicine rotation during third year. During this rotation, I had the opportunity to work with nine different physicians, and I learned many different styles of practice. I saw many patients with common problems such as diabetes and hypertension. Towards the final weeks of my rotation, most of the doctors I worked with let me ask most of the important preventative care questions and do all of the counseling to encourage patients to stay on course with their treatment plans. This was a vital part of my education, because I learned about the many follow up visits patients with chronic medical conditions have and how often they have to monitor their conditions. More importantly, I started to learn about how difficult it was to keep up with chronic conditions and how each patient requires individualized counseling in order to stay motivated to follow up with the numerous suggestions their primary care physicians make. At the end of my rotation I received feedback stating:
“Very mature differential and sophisticated reasoning; including impact of illness on patient and family”
“Plans complete, appropriate, timely, including all details and reflected appreciation of patient’s experience of illness”
“Exemplary student. She worked with 9 different doctors during the month and got to learn each person’s style of patient care. She was always eager to learn, always did any homework given and always asked appropriate questions to improve her knowledge and exam skills. Several patients complimented her in her presence and also in private to me. My colleagues and I all agree that she has been one of our best students to date.”
During the rest of my third year and during my fourth year, I made sure to continue to have meaningful outpatient rotations. Although I am interested in subspecializing within internal medicine, I know that preventative care plays a crucial role in whatever specialty I choose. Two other rotations I found particularly useful were outpatient hematology/oncology and outpatient gynecology/oncology. The physicians I worked with were not only interested in monitor cancer recurrence, but also acted as the primary care physician for their patients, and I was able to further my knowledge in preventative care. I am glad I was able to get exposed to this area of medicine early on during medical school. I plan to continue to learn more about preventative care in order to become a great primary care provider in my continuity clinic practice during residency and as a future attending physician.