New week, new discipline

Today, my Internal Medicine rotation continued in Hepatology.

On the Hepatology ward in UZ Leuven.

The day started off a bit of a mess. The bus I was taking to the hospital broke down on the stop right after I boarded. I got off at that stop only to realise the next bus heading to the hospital wasn’t coming for 18 minutes. I stood and waited. Finally, the bus came. When I got to the hospital, I followed my supervisor's directions to get to the ward, but it turned out those were wrong. The ward I’m on isn’t in green; it’s purple. 

A kind nurse saw I was lost and directed me to the ward. I found the doctor’s office and walked in. There were three people in the room. Everyone introduced themselves. Two were doctors, and the third was another intern. I apologised for my tardiness. Not a good look to be late on my first day in this department, but the doctors were friendly and told me not to worry; they were just getting started. 

We split into pairs—each intern with a doctor. The plan was that, together with our doctor, we would follow the patients assigned to them. My doctor printed me a list of her patients. There were 11. She explained that all the patients were new for her, too, because last week she was on a different ward. We would both need to read through the patient's files to get caught up. One by one, I opened each file and read up on the past few days. I made notes on my paper, as did the doctor, then together, we went to see the patients. Before we entered each patient's room, my doctor stopped to explain the patient's history to me in case something in the file wasn't clear. And after leaving, she let me ask any questions I had before moving on to the next patient.

Once all the patients were seen, we went back to the doctor's room to make notes about our physical examination findings, order any new labs or imaging we thought were necessary, and prepare for when the professor came. With the professor, we once again reviewed each patient and discussed our plans, then the three of us went to see them. 

During the day, my doctor and I had three new admissions. At around 5:40 pm, my doctor told me, let's see this last admission and then you can go home. When I looked at the time, I couldn't even believe it. The day was over. My doctor had kept me so busy I hadn't even noticed the time. She ensured I was actively involved in the care of our patients every step of the way. I left the hospital at 6:16 pm. I wasn't exhausted, and I sure didn’t feel like it was after 6 pm.

Tomorrow I will observe and possibly participate in some diagnostic procedures for our patients. Stay tuned!