We spent this rotation seeing patients all over the hospital who have a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS. We'd start some mornings by attending rounds where we'd learn about all patients within a specific unit. Then we'd receive our patient assignments and head out to find them and make our assessments. This was a really interesting rotation because of the complexity of the disease state involved with HIV. Some patients were well-controlled and compliant with their medication regimens and others didn't put in as much effort (whether due to their own choices or lack of resources). It was common to have patients who were "frequent flyers" at the hospital who would check out of the hospital against medical advice and then return a few days later with some other complication and typically test positive for a multitude of illicit drugs. We saw patients with many opportunistic infections commonly associated with HIV/AIDS such as Kaposi's sarcoma, pneumocystitis pneumonia (PCP or PJP pneumonia), candidiasis, and herpes.
We learned a lot about the different levels of precaution in the hospital in this rotation. Due to the nature of certain infections or the risk of influenza, some patients had full
airborne precautions where we would have to enter the room in full suits with head hoods, face masks, gowns and gloves (I skipped this and just called these patients on the phone) or
droplet precautions that required eye covers and mouth/nose masks in addition to gowns and gloves or just
contact precations where we have to wear gowns and gloves.
Up Next: Renal Transplant, 2 Weeks
