Site Evaluator: Andrea Pizarro, PA-C
For my site evaluations, I chose to present two very different cases. First, an 82-year-old male was admitted for hematochezia. Second, an 87-year-old female presented with stroke-like symptoms. During our meetings, Andrea worked with me and one other student and had us explain our reasoning for our differential list and plan during admission. One of the things that Andrea did differently was to have us include a section in our H&P titled “Patient Education”. As she mentioned, she knew that we all have experience in school writing a comprehensive H&P. What she wanted to see from us though is that we were also building skills as future providers who could explain a medical diagnosis to a patient in a language that they understood. This is one of the biggest skills that I think we can take out of the clinical year. You learn very quickly that no patient will ever fit a textbook definition, and it is important that we are able to explain what the plan is and why for someone who has never taken a course in medicine. I appreciated her feedback and felt that my second presentation was superior to any that I had given before. This is something I will look to continue to grow to as I move forward throughout the remaining rotations.