Site evaluation reflection

Site evaluation for surgery was a productive exercise. At NYPQ, at every specialty I rotated with, my preceptors wanted me to present 2 full HPIs so I had to write and present 6 in total. I got to present my 2 favorite ones to the school preceptor and we had a stimulating discussion about how my presentation to hospital preceptors went and what I needed to improve.

For my first visit I presented a case of a small bowel obstruction. At the time of my presentation I followed the patient for over a week and, since I evaluated her in the ED and presented her every morning during rounds, I was intimately familiar with every detail of her case, which was interesting because she improved with a nonoperative management despite being scheduled for OR almost every morning during her admission.

For the second case I presented a patient with renal calculi who had a broad differential due to a previous bowel instrumentation and presentation pointing a lot towards appendicitis.

Since I’ve seen a lot of ureteral stent placements during my Urologic Surgery part, I have chosen an article evaluating stent effectiveness in treating renal calculi as this is a procedure my patient ended up undergoing.

I have received useful feedback and inspiring guidance from my preceptor since she is a surgical PA – a direction I am planning to take.