Asking good questions on clinical rotations

[ladoctoraDMU]

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I'm a 3rd year on a plastic surgery rotation. My attending likes to talk/teach about random things in the OR and always asks if I have questions. I always feel dumb that most of the questions I think of are things I can probably look up. Any thoughts on good questions to ask so as to make the most of this learning experience? Questions about plastics, surgery, or medicine in general?

 

[CarlATHF]

Don't ask about stuff you can look up "what's that?" "How do I tie X knot", etc. Ask about patient management. Why are you doing X vs. doing Y vs. managing this patient non-operatively, stuff like that. You'll get a lot more out of clinical rotations if you do it that way.

 

[caffeinemia]

I may or may not be doing plastics or have rotated extensively in plastics.

It's a discipline where there are many ways to solve a problem ... I would recommend you read up on the x different ways to fix something like a lip defect or reconstruct a breast or whatever, then go to the OR for that problem and ask something like, "I've read that TRAM reconstruction has better cosmetic outcomes/lower rate of complication/blah blah blah than tissue expander reconstruction. In your experience, do you find that this is true? ... Oh you don't? Is there something special you do that makes these patients less prone to having infected expanders/dehiscence/contracture/better ptosis, yadda yadda yadda. In the case of this patient, is that why she lected to have this procedure versus this procedure."

Be prepared for a shietstorm of pimpage that will ensue, but if you're well prepared, you'll shine like never before.