Over the past 5 weeks, I completed my Family Medicine rotation. Although I never envisioned myself enjoying the outpatient setting, I really loved this rotation for multiple reasons. First off, my rotation took place at a family medicine practice in Arverne, which is an area of Far Rockaway, Queens, with a highly underserved and underprivileged population of patients. Almost every patient I saw had a long list of comorbidities, including typical diagnoses and complaints such as diabetes, hypertension, back pain and hyperlipidemia, as well as some more interesting diagnoses like esophageal cancer, hepatitis and systemic lupus erythematosus. Many of the patients lacked the education and knowledge about the conditions they had, which required the provider and myself to educate the patients about preventative and protective measures, lifestyle modifications, and disease mechanisms so that the patients had a good understanding of their conditions and symptoms. I not only learned some key points about the pathophysiology of various diseases myself, but I also learned the importance of patient interaction and explaining diagnosis and treatment plans in colloquial terms and simple language with patience and care. 

Additionally, the preceptor I worked with was excellent. She is a certified PA who has been working at the practice for the past 3 years. I got to witness first hand the benefits of forming real relationships with your patients, such as establishing trust to the point that patients with share uncomfortable details that pertain to their symptoms, so that the PA could provide the best and most individualized care to them. She taught me that the major advantage to working in Family Medicine is the “familiarity” with your patients, which makes treating them easier. Additionally, my preceptor had my drawing blood on every patient who needed bloodwork, which helped me hone in on my clinical skills. Although blood draws are not my strong suit, and I realized I need to practice doing them much more, I’m glad I had the opportunity to practice them here under the patience and guidance of my preceptor. I also got to practice blood draws alongside another student from a different PA school, who taught me a few tricks that really helped me improve my skills. 

Finally, my preceptor had me present a powerpoint presentation on a disease of my choice, that pertains to Family Medicine. I chose to present on GERD, since acid reflux and heartburn were common complaints that I encountered, and was commonly among the long list of comorbidities part of the patients’ medical history. I not only was asked to review the pathophysiology, diagnostic steps, and treatment plan of the disease, I was also asked to present a “fun fact” (i.e. a fact about the disease that no one knows.) I chose to discuss the interaction/relationship between H. pylori and GERD, since I found studies indicating that H. pylori actually mildly reduces symptoms of GERD. 

Ultimately, I gained new insight into outpatient medicine that I had not known before. Although there may be less interaction with other healthcare workers, and a smaller number of patients seen a day, each patient has a sense of familiarity and trust with their providers that is unparalleled to many other specialties and settings in health care.