Clinical Reflection

This week was the first time I did my clinical rotation as an FNP student and it was absolutely a completely new world for me! Why? First, I was expecting to just follow my preceptor who is a PA as I mentioned before. However, it was great that I an opportunity to follow my PA’s supervising physician who is a surgeon! Before going any further, I would like to share that I am in a specialty clinic – hand surgery - a subspecialty of orthopedics. The clinic deals with issues related to the elbow and below. The second reason that this is a such a novel health care setting for me is that I have learned new terms that I never encountered before such as Dupuytren’s disease and De Quervain's tenosynovitis (also known as “mommy’s wrist”). It was also a timely review of the anatomy and physiology of the arm and
Lastly, I think that this exposure is more on the medicine side, rather than nursing aspect of the profession. I would like to take it as a positive thing so that I can widen my knowledge on this very specialized branch of orthopedics. My preceptor, with her first time to precept a student, is very knowledgeable about what she does. I thought that is was also considerate of her when she advised me to look up the topics related to orthopedics that might appear in the NP certifying board exam. The plan is for me to research about such subject matter and we would discuss any questions I have the next time we meet, which is usually Wednesdays (0730-1730). Even though it is not a primary care or family medicine, the good thing is that the clinic deals with pediatrics and adults. Honestly, I am not very well versed with pediatric and ob-gyn patients and I feel that this externship would assist me in getting used to the idea that an FNP is expected to handle patients from both sides of the population