i'm applying to match into path and so i did 4 path rotations last year (3 mo worth). i would say that i shined more on clincal path (my area of interest and b/c i have research experience and a strong background in it) and sometimes during surgpath rotations felt a little lost - not that didn't know what we were looking at under the scope but more so that i didn't have clear expectations of me and that the personalities tended to be more intense (dunno if its b/c they interact more often with surgeons but some of them def had the surgeon personality in terms of expectations). i got some good advice later on (which would've helped had i known b4) so i'll pass that on to u.
1) read up on your cases - if u know ahead of time that u r sitting w/ say the gi person that day, read up on gi in robbins/wheater and def know the normal histo so that u can at least answer the 'what tissue is this?' question at least. if there's sth u don't know during sign-out, write it down (though be disruptive or look disinterested in doing this...u can wait til after to write urself a note if its better) and really do look it up when u have some free time. when i had signout at cdc (did a public health/infectious disease path rotation), there was always some obscure thing that i didn't know at signout but i showed interest by reading up on it and letting them know what i learned at signout the next day (this showed that i actually did look it up, too). if attendings/residents/etc spend their time/effort to teach/ask u sth, show some respect (take notes or at least don't not know what they're asking if they ask u about what they taught u the next day - don't look up on ur phone, i got scolded for this twice early on, read up, and let them know that u r making an effort w/o being obnoxious)
2) find a resident who is willing to teach or help u - sometimes, its hard to know how things r done in the dept, find info like who is assigned to what rotation if u r doing more than just one thing like surgpath (most of my rotations were tailored so i rotated thru multiple subspecialties), or where anything is - find someone who u can tell (it could be the clerkship director, too) that u're interested in spending some time in x (eg - autopsy where its unpredictable when one will come but the resident on that service will get a page and if s/he knows ahead of time that u'd like to go, then they'll come find u and u don't miss out on an opp); i had a good resident who would ask what i wanted to do the next day, then she'd introduce or take me to the resident on that service (eg - blood bank) and let them know i'd be spending the day with them and set up anything else that had to be done wrt whatever i wanted to see that day
3) be helpful - offer to do scut like writing down the weights/findings during autopsy or take pictures during autopsy, etc (the attendings usu appreciate this b/c their gloves get nasty)
4) whenever there is sth extra (unknown conf, tumor board, cp or ap noon conference, etc), go if u have nothing else u're assigned to do then...sometimes u might be rewarded w/ free food, too, and it shows interest plus gives u a broader view of the profession and u might learn sth
5) ask if there are any slide boxes of cases/interesting slides that u can preview (there often r and i didn't know this til i got scolded for not "showing interest" b/c i didn't ask to look at these at an early rotation - the attending said that another student at my school the year b4 would just take those boxes and spend the whole day looking at them and that b/c of that she thought he was "more interested") and if u can maybe sit with one of the nice residents afterwards to go over them (or u can just preview and skip this step if u don't get good vibes from a resident that they'd be willing to spend time with u - always remember, that they also have service responsibilities and that teaching u is not nec their #1 duty so always be appreciative if they do); also ask ur fav resident on surgpath if u can preview their slides b4 signout together with the attending (after they've previewed them of course) and come up with ur own thoughts b/c they might ask u questions at signout so show that u took this seriously
6) if they don't require u to do a presentation at the end of the rotation (2 of mine required it), then offer to do one on an interesting case - they tend to prefer if its one u found while on rotation but i did one that i had at nih rotation b/c i had actual bone marrow bx pix. one place (a competitive one) was impressed b/c they never had a med student offer or do a presentation at their noon conf b4. ask a resident to help by pointing out what might a good case to u from signout (they might need to help u get the info from the emr if u don't have access) and ask them if they'd be nice enough to look over ur rough ppt and give u some feedback to refine it b4 u actually give the presentation.
