FEATURE
THOUGHTS IN PRACTICE: Medical
Student Externships
Recently, a handful of UofL medical students entering their second year were
given the chance to work in a clinical setting for a summer externship. Following
this experience, these students wrote about what they had learned from their
work. Louisville Medicine is publishing three of the best recollections of these
experiences. Enjoy, as we did, the thoughts of these physicians-in-training.
LIFE ON Seven West
Julie Beck
T
he team on Seven West carries a
heavy load. They care for patients
and families when they are at the end
of their ropes and are fragile. Many
days though, you would never know
how heavy of a load they carry. The entire
team smiles, laughs, gives encouragement and
welcomes hugs from patients and families.
In four short weeks, I expanded on my hematology and oncology
knowledge, but more than that I learned important lessons on what
it takes to be a doctor and a human.
Lesson one: work as a team. The attending, residents, nurses,
family care coordinators, pharmacist, nurse practitioners and all
support staff on Seven West are one team. The open sharing of
knowledge and opinions is vital to their patients’ care. When round-
ing each day, no detail is overlooked, and everyone is advocating
for the patient. It is in this way that their patients are so well cared
for. The holistic approach used helps ensure the patient is cared for
physically, mentally and emotionally.
Lesson two: acknowledge even the smallest improvements and
celebrate them. Whether it was a slightly improved ANC or a patient
completing chemo, all accomplishments were cause for a party. The
team is so devoted to their patients that any improvement brought
cheers from the group, and they couldn’t wait to share the news
with their patient.
Lesson three: Soak up the moments of joy. The purest form of
joy I experienced was a 6-year-old eating a grilled cheese sandwich.
With her new diagnosis of ALL and a tough past few days of ad-
justing to her hospital room, we walked in at nine in the morning
for rounds and she was eating the sandwich like it was the greatest
thing on earth. For the rest of the day, we laughed about how much
joy it brought to her and us. That small moment is important to hold
onto in the midst of hardships happening elsewhere.
Lesson four: Strive to learn something new every day. The at-
tending and residents took time to teach daily even when notes and
orders started to pile up. No matter where we are in our career we
always have time to expand our knowledge. By always striving to
better ourselves as physicians and people we continue our promise
to provide our patients with the best care possible.
I am grateful this externship provided me a glimpse of what
life is like on Seven West. Everyone on the team is a fierce patient
advocate and does everything in his/her power to make the patients’
lives better. I learned more than I could have imagined from them
in 20 short days, not only lessons on diagnosis and treatment, but
more importantly on what compassion and altruism truly look
like in action.
Julie Beck is a second year medical student at UofL School of
Medicine.
FEBRUARY 2019
13