Alex Mack (first year PA student, class of 2020) shares her experience in Internal Medicine
What LP did you do? The LP was completed on the Internal Medicine Floor, at Milton District Hospital with Physician Assistant Brent Lavin. How did you go about contacting and arranging the LP? I originally got Brent’s name from the LP sheet provided from the program. What did you learn from the LP? I learned a lot about the areas of medicine that we had previously covered in tutorial. I completed this LP at the end of MF1, thus we had covered the respiratory system, cardiology and hematology. Many of the patients on the floor had medical concerns falling under these categories. I was able to take we had learned in tutorial and see it applied clinically. By listening to patient histories, listening to heart and lung sounds and seeing the treatment in action, I was able to gain a much better understanding of class content. Brent took the time to explain any concepts that we had not previously covered. What do you wish you had known beforehand to help in your LP? As most of the patients fell under the geriatric category, most of them had other comorbid conditions including kidney disease and dementia. It would have been helpful to have gone over some of the complications associated with dementia. It would also have been helpful to have had a better understanding on the kidney function tests and their interpretation. That being said, Brent took this knowledge gap into consideration and focused on patients whose conditions we have covered in class. How has this experience helped you clinically, in class and/or in career decision-making? Brent put a large focus of practicing my clinical skills while I was at the placements. It was a great opportunity to practice my respiratory and cardiology physical examination skills. One of my favourite parts about the placement was that at the end of each placement, he would give a crash course about the content we were covering in class. He focused on details that were relevant clinically and was able to provide clinical insight into the most common presentations, the investigations that were truly ran and the best treatment options of the conditions. An internal medicine LP is unique in that provides a great overview of many different body systems. After completing this LP, I am now interested in working on internal medicine floor. Comments are closed.
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May 2019
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