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Advice for clinical years
Started by pvdmg
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be eternally cheerful, good-natured, and never say anything bad about anyone, patient, resident, nurse, or attending. It will come back and bite you in the worst way.
know that as a med student even though you are cheerful and well-intentioned, you add to everyone's work load and do not make anyone's life easier (unless you speak the patient's language and they do not). Understand that everyone is trying to get their work done and doing their best to incorporate you at the same time, except for people who don't give a crap about you and treat you like dirt (then, return to Eternal Sunshine approach above).
learn how to place IVs, do wet-dry dressing changes, place a foley and all the other little things that will make your life easier as a resident. There is always something for you to learn. Even if you are not allowed to write orders, do the closest thing possible. Even if your note doesn't count and is not allowed to be placed in the chart, write one anyway.
finally, even if you think you have all the time in the world, do your best to get in and out of a new patient's room and ready to present your H&P in 1 hour or less. It will take some practice to do this, but this is a good goal. Another goal is for outpt visits, learn to write the note while seeing the pt (a good goal by the end of 4th yr).
know that as a med student even though you are cheerful and well-intentioned, you add to everyone's work load and do not make anyone's life easier (unless you speak the patient's language and they do not). Understand that everyone is trying to get their work done and doing their best to incorporate you at the same time, except for people who don't give a crap about you and treat you like dirt (then, return to Eternal Sunshine approach above).
learn how to place IVs, do wet-dry dressing changes, place a foley and all the other little things that will make your life easier as a resident. There is always something for you to learn. Even if you are not allowed to write orders, do the closest thing possible. Even if your note doesn't count and is not allowed to be placed in the chart, write one anyway.
finally, even if you think you have all the time in the world, do your best to get in and out of a new patient's room and ready to present your H&P in 1 hour or less. It will take some practice to do this, but this is a good goal. Another goal is for outpt visits, learn to write the note while seeing the pt (a good goal by the end of 4th yr).
Hi Snuffbox and NonTradDO. Thank you so much for the great advice of being nice to people. It looks like a simple task, yet many forget to do so. Thank you so much for reminding me about that. NonTradDO, about reading the cases, you're refering to the cases we've attended to in the hospital that day right? So how do you go about it, i mean you concentrate only on a certain aspect of the case like, pathology, pathophysiology, pharmacology or you go through the case as a whole? I'm sorry if my question sounds silly, cause i don't have much idea on how the clinical years are going to be! I only heard from my seniors that we follow the doctors/lecturers in the wards and will be taught certain procedures as well as practice the history taking. Every 7 weeks we rotate to a different posting. Like for me my first posting will be community medicine. What you guys do for community medicine besides visiting district hospitals, doing presentations and research? Thank you and have a good day.
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Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get the H.
There is a difference between trying to outshine other students and trying to do the best you can.....
being nice def helps
