Family Medicine

I've been on Family Medicine rotation for 2 weeks now. So far, I love it. It's been fun going to clinic and seeing patients. My first week was with the attendings. But all the attendings are also faculty so they rotate throughout the week. There would be 2 attendings in the morning and a different 2 in the afternoons. So I got a lot of variety. I don't get much continuity of care because on week 2, I worked on a different floor and followed residents (mainly 2nd & 3rd years) in their clinic. The clinic is connected to the hospital so I would still go to the hospital cafeteria for lunch and attend resident lunch lectures (which usually has better food & free stuff from pharmaceuticals) which are about 1 hour long & 2-3x per week.

I find that interacting with the patients is so much easier as an outpatient and they usually present with less complicated problems. The challenge to me is to know the diagnosis immediately and know what drug to give them (I'm trying to make more use the Sanford guide to antimicrobials).

I had one young patient that presented with new onset of migraine (never had one in her life) that she pointed out as unilateral temporal and sometimes radiating behind her ear. She had no aura or signs of meningitis. She also mentioned that she had all her wisdom teeth removed a month ago. It turns out it was TMJ syndrome and the doctor mentioned that she may also have bruxism.