Two weeks ago was the last day of my last clinical rotation. It was a sad day with my absolute favorite preceptor throughout the entire year of rotations. I drove away from the clinic feeling like I hadn’t in a while – the realization that I would not be working with this physician again, who taught me more than anyone ever had in medical school and was passionately dedicated to optimizing his students’ learning, hit me hard and left me reflecting fondly albeit very sadly, all throughout the rest of the day. I still cannot believe that a year on the wards and in the clinic has passed. I still remember my first month of rotations when I was completely clueless in the pediatrics office and had to web search 80% of treatments/syndromes, and even more clueless on the labor and delivery floor, walking in blindly to a C-section without knowing much of the female reproductive anatomy. Now, I feel relatively confident in diagnosing the majority of symptoms I see in clinic, and also am usually not far off the exact assessment/plan for most patients. It is mind-blowing to think about how quickly and vastly we learn in medical school, especially out of the classroom and in clinical practice. I particularly loved this year of rotations, and realize that I learn much better when I am seeing and doing things in person, and working with mostly fantastic teachers in the process.
