I'm on my MPH year of a 5 year MD/MPH program - and will be entering clinics next summer. I was wondering if anyone could give advice about staying fresh on my clinical skills. I've stepped back from the medicine side of things this year, and probably will not see a single patient or talk about pathology/phamacology. Am I setting myself up for trouble next year when I enter clinic, or will it all come back to me?

I'm on my MPH year of a 5 year MD/MPH program - and will be entering clinics next summer. I was wondering if anyone could give advice about staying fresh on my clinical skills. I've stepped back from the medicine side of things this year, and probably will not see a single patient or talk about pathology/phamacology. Am I setting myself up for trouble next year when I enter clinic, or will it all come back to me?

One way that I've found that helps (and it's been almost 4 years now, since I'm a mudphud) is to volunteer at the local free clinic. Actually, a fair number of our mudphuds do this. It helps that we do our internal med rotation prior to grad school. We see patients as "examiners", similar to PAs, and we then staff with volunteer physicians. Not only do I enjoy the volunteerism and underserved nature of the patient population, it's a great way to learn outpatient medicine. :thumbup:

If you don't have this option (which seems unlikely but not impossible - a large number of medical schools have student-run clinics and/or nearby free clinics), you might see if you can set up formal or informal experiences with med school faculty. Again, our mstp requires 4 semesters of "clinical connections" where we work with an individual clinical faculty member. But, if heard of some students arranging these types of experiences on their own (It may depend on whether you still have student status at your medical school while you're doing your mph, though).

if all else fails, a year really isn't that long - lots of students do mphs and still do fine during their final year(s) of medical school :)