Hey 3rd and 4th years!
I have some questions regarding rotations.
I just put in my choices for rotations. And I'm realizing that Beaumont is my first choice for nearly every rotation. I live down the street from Beaumont, which is why I'm drawn to it. But will I find it tedious to do too many rotations there? Anybody do rotations there? Do you have an opinion on the education?
Mainly I'm debating the Medicine/Neuro/Psych... any insight?
Thanks!!!
I have a few minutes, so heres a rundown of what I have dealt with so far
I start off with Neuro at DMC half of us at the DMC were sent to DRH and half to harper. I was in the harper half, but was sent over to DRH for a week of neuro icu. The attendings were okay, didnt teach as much as I would have liked (and certainly not as much as I would now expect). I think that in my three weeks at Harper I had two different attendings. I liked that fact that we didnt have to log cases, but the computer based practice cases were a bit of a PITA.
Next up was psych. Also at the DMC, then a few days before the start of the rotation I get an e-mail telling me Im at DMC-North
WTF?? Turns out that is Sinai. I agree that Dr. Spurlock is a fan of busywork rumor is that there is going to be a clerkship co-coordinator (who happens to be really nice) next year, which should help. A good thing about pysch at Sinai is that you get to spend some time on the in-Pt unit, crisis center, consult service, and out-Pt clinic
really get to see the spread of the field. Hated psych, but had an surprising decent month (would have been better w/o the Saturday lectures).
Surgery at the DMC. First month was at DRH
if I EVER just watch another I&D abscess it will be too soon. Had a good team, was frustrated by the poor communication on the part of the dept. re: lectures that were cancelled/rescheduled at the last minute (standard WSU-SOM BS). Would have appreciated more teaching aimed at us by the team, but I think that it was sacrificed b/c of the 80 hour work week. Basically had a good team but was bored to death by the cases. Then was a month at CHM
I would suggest avoiding that assignment at all costs. The team sucked all the residents were miserable and that made life suck for the MS3s. I was basically told that I was not to touch a chart or Pt for the entire month. But have heard that things have improved some since then.
Basically, good team at DRH but was quickly bored with the cases (the MS4, residents, and some of the other MS3s got the fun trauma cases). CHM had some interesting cases but I got to do nothing and the team was horrible.
Ford for OB/GYN. The residents were cool, but the interns were scary incompetent. It probably would have been better for some of the pts if the interns were replaced the MS3s. Basically did 4 weeks of GYN (scrubbed into cases most days), a week at an out-pt clinic (mine sucked b/c the pts wouldnt let a student anywhere near them I didnt even get allowed into the exam room >50% of the time), a week of nights, and a couple weeks in L&D. Of course schedules were individualized so some poor bastards ending up spending 5 weeks in L&D were some of the midwifes seemed to hate having students around and consequently went out of their way to make out lives difficult. Never got to actually deliver a baby, but saw a few. Was given the opportunity to deliver the placenta a couple of times (no thanks). Never saw a circ. Did have a fair amount of time to read/study. Free weekends.
CHM for in-pt and out-pt peds. For Out-Pt my specialty clinic wasnt bad and I felt like I was actually learning something. But the general peds clinic really was miserable (partly because they are in the process of going live with their EMR), as Katrina stated. I was pleasantly surprised by my month of In-Pt. The q4 call does sort of suck, but I have already dealt with worse (a stretch of q3 on surgery) so it wasnt too bad. Other thing that sucks about peds is all the pointless paperwork that you have to do (regardless of clerkship site). One bad thing with call is the call rooms, they are nowhere near the units and not all that nice and have a tendency to bit a bit odiferous.
Back to DRH for medicine. I think this experience is very team dependent. I like my attending but rounds are taking way too long every day and I am getting out way too late to do as much reading as I am going to need to do in order to pass this shelf. Also, a bit disappointed by a lack of procedures being done by the team (might just be luck of the draw for the pts that are coming in when were on call). Q4 call can be annoying, but the good thing is that you only have to take call overnight once a month the down side of that is being back at DRH to round with the team (usually happens by 0700 when post-call), some nights I got more sleep by staying in the call room instead of driving home. Call room is actually rather nice, even if it is nowhere near the units.
FM is up next and I am planning on doing it somewhere other than downtown.
If you have any specific questions feel free to PM me.
To expand on my previous statement
the DMC can be good for hands on learning (which is why I did most of third year there) but I would suggest giving yourself some vacations from it in order to avoid burning out. Do some of your clerkships at the suburban hospitals I have heard some good things about St. Johns and Beaumont, but dont remember for which rotations.
