Internal Medicine: Site Evaluation

For my site evaluation, I presented two H&Ps, 10 drug cards, and a journal article related to patients I saw while on rotation. For my first H&P I presented a 93-year-old male who was admitted to medicine for an upper respiratory infection for three weeks that developed into pneumonia and DVT.  For my second H&P was a patient presenting with chest pain, syncope, and shortness of breath and was having a full-cardiac work-up. During my meeting with Andrea, I had to explain my reasoning for my differential list and plan for admission, what labs we would order, and what we were trying to rule out or confirm, and how we would treat this patient once we confirmed our diganosis. Throughout didactic I have written six H&P, but never a “patient education” section that Andrea recommended. This was a way to communicate with the patient using “plain” terms and to teach us, and show us how to effectively communicate with patients what labs we are ordering, and imagining, and give them a sense of comfort. This was the biggest takeaway from my site evaluation, and something I want to get better at with my future rotations.