Interpersonal challenges and how you addressed them:

My long-term care rotation at Gouverneur was a great first experience for clinical year. I was able to interact with many patients of various backgrounds each with their own unique story to tell. The most difficult challenge I encountered during this rotation was gaining respect from other employees at the hospital. It is often difficult as a student to feel a sense of belonging at a site as much as a licensed and paid employee does. Additionally, it is also challenging when you first introduce yourself as a student to a patient and immediately they lose interest and confidence in your abilities. The best way I was able to counteract this was to portray as much confidence as possible. If i showed the patients and hospital staff that I am capable and competent then I was able to earn their respect.

Types of patients you found challenging in this rotation and what you learned about dealing with them:

The most challenging patients I encountered at Gouverneur were those that I was unable to communicate with, whether that be due to a language barrier or mental incapacity. Being on the lower east side of Manhattan brings in a lot of patients who are non-English speakers (many Chinese, Hispanic) and while using a translator phone and/or family member was useful, it is difficult to connect to the patient without speaking directly to them. Additionally, many of the patients were diagnosed with some form of dementia and/or were only alert & oriented to person and not time/place/situation. This also made it difficult to do a physical exam on them, as I would have liked to be able to interact directly with them during such a sensitive interaction.

How your perspective may have changed as a result of this rotation (e.g. elderly patients, kids, IV drug users, etc):

After finishing my long-term care rotation I can say with certainty that I have more respect for the elderly. While I have interacted with geriatric patients before, I think my perspective has changed after spending so much time in the long term care setting. It is often difficult to think of a loved one being placed in a nursing facility for an extended period of time, and one would hope that their parent/grandparent is being taken care of as best as possible. Having this in mind, I tried my best to always take into consideration how I would treat the patient as if they were my own grandparent, and how it must be difficult for them to be living away from home and out of their usual comfort zone. I made sure to interact with each patient in a respectful manner, trying to converse as I would with any individual, and not just out of empathy for a hospitalized elderly individual.

What did you learn about yourself during this 5-week rotation?

This rotation taught me to not underestimate my abilities and my capability to demonstrate all the skills that I’ve learned throughout the didactic phase of the program. Although I was (extremely) nervous the first day to begin this rotation and clinical year overall, I soon learned that I did not need to be. Soon enough I was comfortable interacting with patients and their family members, reporting back to my preceptor, and developing thorough patient notes. It soon became second nature and it reminded me of why I had pursued this profession to begin with. I look forward to gaining experience on my upcoming rotations, and being able to continue to learn how to be the best provider for my patients.