FEATURE
REFLECTING ON A Pediatric Summer Externship
Allyson Tekulve
W
hen I first applied to this
externship, I believed the
subspecialty I chose was
of utmost importance.
What if I chose the wrong
one? What I found was that the most signifi- conditions that I’ll be cognizant of when I come across them again.
There was one patient with a fever and general symptoms of a virus
who also had a possible exposure to ticks, and that was missed by
multiple others before us. This patient had a few of the defining
features of a tick-borne illness but wasn’t completely convincing, yet
we made sure he was empirically given doxycycline. The test ending
cant lessons were ones broad enough to span
any specialty or subspecialty; things which
might seem trivial, but really impacted the way I approached caring
for patients. up coming back positive for ehrlichiosis. If there was one thing I
took away from this, it’s how important it is to keep asking questions
and not jump to a diagnosis. What I really enjoyed about infectious
diseases was how they dug deep into a patient’s history and experi-
ence in hopes of gathering every little piece of the story. We spent
lots of time simply thinking and coming up with hypotheses. When
I did my first H&P in this rotation, I realized how many questions
there were to ask that probably seemed silly or irrelevant, but how
they really help us understand these patients, their exposures and
all the small details which might be missed otherwise.
I was able to witness my resident and attending physician handle
challenging situations, such as parents against vaccinating their
child, or parents who were demanding and confrontational. They
showed me how to remain calm and understanding, listen carefully
to the concerns of others, and allow their presence to be supportive
while eloquently educating patients and their families. They showed
me how to calm a fussy baby with a gentle touch, how to ensure
every child feels some control over their situation, and how easy it
is to brighten a kid’s day with a little Slushie from the lounge. I saw
them work together with their colleagues at their weekly conference,
making sure nothing about a patient was missed and that they were
providing the best care possible. They showed me how important
it is to simply communicate – with patients, their families, the pri-
mary care team, other consulting physicians, nurses, radiologists
and everyone in between.
To conclude, this experience exceeded my expectations. I gained
valuable medical knowledge, communication skills, and connections
with the residents and attending physicians. It was a wonderful
way to spend a month of my summer, and I’m so appreciative of
the opportunity.
Allyson Tekulve is a second year medical student at UofL School of
Medicine.
In addition, I gained rich examples of different illnesses and
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