So my I always wonder if I actually know some of this information outside of the classroom setting and today, I could. My boyfriend is on rotations at an ER for pharmacy and had a patient who presented with an abrupt onset of epigastric pain that radiated to the back, tachy, fever etc. I asked him if a Lipase and Amylase was run on the patient and if it was high... he said yes. Then he told me LFTs were run on the patient. I asked if AST and ALT were also elevated and he said that he believed they were. Finally, I asked if they did any imaging studies on the patient and he said they did an ABD X-ray. Without even knowing the rest of the patient's story I asked..."did the providers think it was acute pancreatitis?" To my slight disbelief he said yea... thats what they were talking about.
Now, this may seem silly to all of you reading this, but this was a huge moment for me. After I took the test on the GI unit I was convinced that I did not know enough to get by just because I did not feel confident enough. But right after the exam and talking to my boyfriend about this patient case, I realize that I do know far more than I ever thought I could. I do not by any means know all that I need to know yet (and probably never will) but I feel that most of what I have learned carries with me more than I realize.
Moments like this make me extremely excited for rotations where I can actually interact with patients and use the knowledge that I spent so long studying.
Now, this may seem silly to all of you reading this, but this was a huge moment for me. After I took the test on the GI unit I was convinced that I did not know enough to get by just because I did not feel confident enough. But right after the exam and talking to my boyfriend about this patient case, I realize that I do know far more than I ever thought I could. I do not by any means know all that I need to know yet (and probably never will) but I feel that most of what I have learned carries with me more than I realize.
Moments like this make me extremely excited for rotations where I can actually interact with patients and use the knowledge that I spent so long studying.