Brooklyn Hospital Center Rotation TIWIHKS (Things I Wished I Had Known Sooner)

NOTE: this is for the one month Brooklyn rotation. Here's some helpful pointers for those who are rotating here. Angie, the owner of the house will give you more info and send pics as you get closer to your rotation date:

1) The house is located at 1426 Carroll St, Brooklyn NY 11213, which has 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, and 1 kitchen with a decent sized living room with a dinner table. One bedroom has 1 full size bed, one has 1 twin size bed, and one has 2 twin size bed. Each room has it's own fridge to go along with the fridge in the living room.

2) During the summer it gets very hot and humid here, but Angie did install a AC unit in the living room for us, which helped a bit. I would suggest bringing/buying a small fan to keep bedside.

3) If you need anything, don't hesitate to reach out to Angie! She will do her best to help!

4) There is only one table in the living room and is really only good for having a meal at.

5) The house comes with plenty of cooking utensils including an air fryer, a water boiler, a coffee machine, a pressure cooker, and a toaster. There are eating utensils and bowls and dishes as well. Basically everything except the food.

6) There is an oven, microwave, freezer, fridge, and gas stove top. Of note: there is NO DISHWASHER, so be prepared to hand wash all your dishes. There are sponges and dish soap provided as well as a small drying rack.

7) The house has keypad entry on the front door, which Angie will give you the code for.

8) There's a TV in the living room, but we never turned it on because we were either studying, working, or exploring the city.

9) Bring your own towels (hand towels, drying towels for dishes, and showering towels) these are not provided. Bedding, pillows, and blankets are provided.

10) The Brooklyn Hospital Center is located at 121 Dekalb Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11201 and is about a 20 minute total commute away from the house. You'll walk 5 minutes to Kingston Ave Station, take the train for 10 minutes to stop at Nevins St, then walk another 5 minutes to the hospital.

11) You do get a hospital meal card which is loaded with $6 that resets every day that you can use for lunch. It may not seem like much, but the meals there are priced pretty cheaply, so you could get a decent meal for free/cheap. To note, the $6 cannot be accrued each day, so if you don't use it, you lose it.

When I rotated in July, I was the only RVU student doing IM, but I was also with St. George University students. They were all split into different IM teams, so in my team it was me, 2-3 other SGU students, 2 PGY1s, 1 PGY2, and 1 PGY3 residents. I’m not sure if there will be any SGU students when you rotate, but I was basically following their lead for the most part because my preceptor didn't really give me any expectations. And I only ever saw him during rounds, where you’ll have the chance to present a case. If your preceptor is Dr. Yoe, be sure to present at minimal 2 patients every day, though they don't necessarily have to be a new patient everytime, but try to at least get a history and physical when a new patient is admitted. That’s really the only chance for you to showcase yourself to the preceptor. Just be aware you’ll mostly be around residents and maybe SGU students. In terms of the residents, there was a lot of new interns when I came in July so they’re still figuring things out too. But they do make an effort to try and teach you if you’re inquisitive.

My hours were usually 7am - 2pm from M-F. But you could probably get away with coming in later like 8-830 if there’s no new admitted patients to take a hx and present during rounds. The residents in your team will add you to a Whatsapp groupchat where they will communicate if there are new overnight admits. There is a "Morning Report" held in the auditorium starting around 7am where residents will present the overnight patients that came in, but students don't really need to go to those. Basically my daily routine was doing pre-rounds on 2-3 patients first thing in the morning (ask the residents in your team to send you a patient list and pick a case that you find interesting), then rounds usually started from 9am-11am. Then lunch/break until 12:30pm, which would be when you would have "Noon Conference" in the auditorium, which was basically a lecture on various topics, mainly aimed at residents, but students are allowed to come as well. This would go until 1:30pm. Then if there were SGU students, sometimes Dr. Yoe (my preceptor) would teach for an hour for medical student specific topics. I only had 3 of those sessions though. At this point, I was basically free to go either study in the library or shadow the residents for a bit or just head back home.

In terms of actual tasks aside from taking H&Ps and presenting, you could also help the residents make appts for their patients or assist in med recs. Ask the SGU students if you need help or ask one of the nice residents.

For the most part the only tool you need is your stethoscope, but I did bring all my tools and used my reflex hammer and pen light once. I used a small notebook I bought from target to take my histories and notes that I kept in my white coat pocket.

In terms of logistics, Karine is the medical student coordinator for the hospital and will reach out usually a couple days before your rotation starts to help get you access to Allscripts, your badge, and your meal card.

Overall, this rotation, at least for IM, was whatever you make of it. If you want to see all the patients, then go for it. I kinda felt that the effort I put in to practice my patient communication and presentations was equivalent to what I got out of it. In terms of learning, Dr. Yoe will ask you questions during table rounds, and you might get absolutely flamed if you answer wrong like I did multiple times, but don't take it personal as he's just trying to help you and the other residents understand.