I recently began my Family Medicine (FM) rotation and now recall some of the questions I had before coming here. How does FIU HWCOM evaluate us? What would the hospital be like? Where would I live? In the past couple of weeks, I’ve learned the answers and gained a better perspective on what it means to be one of the first AUA students to participate in this program. If you’re on the fence about applying, I have some advice that may sway you.

I’ll start with the easy one: housing. It’s pretty fantastic. I live in a five bedroom house with other AUA students, which is great since I’m living with my classmates and instantly have friends in a new city. Housing is only about half a mile from the hospital.  With such a busy schedule, it’s nice to be within walking distance.

The hospital itself is quite nice and the staff and attendings are very friendly and helpful. I believe that the highest impact on the quality of any rotation is the quality of the attending/residents and we have an excellent preceptor for surgery.  However, from a surgery perspective, the hospital is pretty low risk, meaning it is not really geared for more serious cases; so we don’t often have the chance to be involved in emergency-type surgeries. It would be nice to have the option of rotating at other hospitals that are affiliated with FIU. However, I hear this is something that is being worked on right now.

I don’t know that I would recommend doing all six cores here because it’s nice  to see other hospitals and how they do things. No matter where you go, there is always something new to learn and it shakes things up a little. Here I learned something crucial about treating patients that I wouldn’t have learned elsewhere. Most of the patients I’ve seen speak Spanish. It’s tough to analyze a patient’s condition when I can’t understand what he/she is saying. Learning how to work with patients that don’t speak English can be useful in hospitals in any major city. I’ve been getting a lot of exposure and it’s a thoroughly edifying experience learning Spanish through immersive training.

Overall, I’m pleased with this rotation. Everyone is doing their best to accommodate us and ensure we get everything we can out of this rotation. It’s also a good program for people who choose to do it because of the contiguous nature of rotation scheduling. Also, no other clinical rotation can boast that it has a ready supply of Cuban coffee, which is one of the greatest things I’ve ever tasted.

by Prakash Jayanthi, Class of 2014