Classroom learning can do a lot for how we understand symptoms and how they are treated. What they don’t show us is how patients can experience symptoms in different ways. Read Daniela’s AMO story below to hear how her clinical experience helped her get to know her patients beyond their symptoms.

The Patient Beyond the Symptom: Daniela’s AMO Story

My first week was a bit challenging because of all the new things that I had to assimilate in a short time. However, having a place and a function in a private clinic, with all kinds of medications, and access to different therapies that I was completely unaware of, I learned to do many things in a better way. I learned to take blood, place an IV line, and take a directed clinical history.

All these things helped me to appreciate the specialty more. Having close contact with patients and their illnesses showed me how each one presents the same signs and symptoms in a different way. The doctor tested my limits and mental abilities in such a way that they only motivated me to continue learning day by day.

Despite the long day of work that I had, I came home and continued reading about the different hemoglobinopathy, cancers, diseases, and most common blood disorders, such as the different deficiencies of iron or vitamins B12, B9 that affect the quality of life that people can have. I also learned about the approach to anemia, leukopenia, leukocytosis, thrombocytosis, among other things, and became able to diagnose and treat them quickly and adequately in order to make a change in the lives of patients.

This and many other things helped me to enjoy and take advantage of that month in a better way. Going to see the new city where I stayed, seeing the different museums, and cathedrals, and knowing how people live in that city was also a great challenge, but it made me discover independence and responsibilities in a different way.

It is an experience that everyone should give themselves the opportunity to have so that their point of view expands and they can understand different issues of medicine.

Write your own AMO Story. Reach out to an AMO Advisor and discover your next clinical experience.