For my final month of PA school, I rotated in the OBGYN department at Queens Hospital Center. I spent 2 weeks on the Labor & Delivery service, and the following 2 weeks in the Gynecology Clinic. Queens Hospital Center was a great place for students to improve their clinical skills and test their knowledge in OBGYN, since it is a very student-focused learning hospital. I got to work alongside hard-working PA students, medical students, and excellent residents who were all willing to teach and share what they had learned throughout their own schooling. The residents, PAs, and attendings were especially great at involving the students in the deliveries, C-sections, and clinic visits. While my time in Labor & Delivery was extremely exciting and truly unlike any other experience I had in PA school, I believe my work in the clinic was especially helpful in allowing me to practice my interviewing and physical exam skills, especially pelvic exams. I learned how to have discussions about contraception with patients, and have difficult conversations with patients regarding genetic counseling and pregnancy risks. 

My time in OBGYN was above all a learning experience. There are many aspects to this field of medicine that takes years and years of experience to “perfect,” which further proves the need for health care providers to work together in a collaborative way. I understand that my pelvic exams are not perfect, and that I should work on learning more about genetic testing and counseling. Although these are common aspects of OBGYN medicine, they are also important in other more general fields of medicine, such as primary care and emergency medicine. I also learned that when presenting patients to an attending or other providers, it’s important to keep your presentation short and to the point, and learn which parts of the case are absolutely pertinent and which are more extraneous in the context of a concise presentation. Above all, this rotation was a great way to end off PA school, because I learned a ton of hands-on skills and critical thinking skills that I will definitely carry with me as a certified PA.