Clinical experience during preclerkship

[forEBM]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Good afternoon everybody, hopefully you all don't mind taking a break from mourning John Lennon's deathiversary to give me some thoughts here.

I'm a first year student and I've been looking at trying to get some experience in a clinical setting before third and fourth year rotations start. I'd like to try and go the whole 9 yards. See patients, conduct interviews, perform exams, do some suturing and other simple procedures, all that good stuff.

Don't have valid ACLS or BLS certs, they're rolled into my school's curriculum as sort of a send-off to the clerkship program. I could just get the certifications on my own time and dime if I was sure it would help me get somewhere, but if not it kind of seems wasteful.

Anybody got any ideas on where to look? Or is this just a total waste of time?

 

[GUH]

Good afternoon everybody, hopefully you all don't mind taking a break from mourning John Lennon's deathiversary to give me some thoughts here.

I'm a first year student and I've been looking at trying to get some experience in a clinical setting before third and fourth year rotations start. I'd like to try and go the whole 9 yards. See patients, conduct interviews, perform exams, do some suturing and other simple procedures, all that good stuff.

Don't have valid ACLS or BLS certs, they're rolled into my school's curriculum as sort of a send-off to the clerkship program. I could just get the certifications on my own time and dime if I was sure it would help me get somewhere, but if not it kind of seems wasteful.

Anybody got any ideas on where to look? Or is this just a total waste of time?

You may have issues with liability and insurance. See what your school covers for preclinical students.

 

[Dr. Death]

RIP eggman

 

[ortnakas]

I don't think hospitals are generally keen on having pre-clinical students with no liability insurance or ACLS do procedures on patients, unfortunately-- that's what rotations are for.

 

[padfoot777]

I think you're wasting your time for what it's worth. Enjoy first year and focus on boards 2nd year. The whole H&P, physical exam , suturing, etc stuff is for you to worry about come third year. You pick up on that stuff on your rotations faster than you think during rotations bc you're around it all the time.

 

[forEBM]

Thanks for the replies guys/gals, appreciate the thoughts.

 

[jtm0021]

I was bored one day and was looking at a particular school's clerkship manual trying to learn about sites and such. I believe it was ACOM? Anyways, it laid out in the manual specifically what preclinical students are allowed to do as far as patient interaction. They allowed it, but the restrictions were pretty harsh. The student could take a history (no physical) and the supervising physician must be present in the room.

Edit: Found it.
http://www.acomedu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/2015-2016_Clinical_Clerkship_Manual.pdf
page 40

Not sure where you are going to school, but this might give a good indication.