First year experiences on Clinical Rotations

[donkeykong1]

So at my school we have first year clinicals with mostly outpatient family practice, peds, IM integrated into our clinical skills curriculum. First year is nearing a close and so I'm trying to reflect on what I got out of it and what I can improve on. My H&P has definitely improved immensely from day 1 as I get better at asking the right questions, auscultating....

The one thing thats tough is getting ready for those "pimping" questions. There are times when a preceptor asks the simple things like ok what is? answer clubbing..., how does digoxin work and so on. And there are instances where I get asked a question while we're both with a patient and get totally schooled..yup I guess most ppl have been there. How do MS3, MS4s prepare for rotations...especially IM where everything is fair game basically?

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[TooMuchResearch]

Repetition. Read about your patients. Luck. Classmates and kind residents prepping you/feeding you answers they know particular attendings ask. And accepting that part of the goal is to ask you questions until your knowledge fails, forcing you to go learn more.

 

[Stellar Clouds]

Read read read. But no matter how much you read, attendings will ask you questions that you can't answer. That's the point of pimping. If they only asked you questions you knew the answer to, you wouldn't learn anything.

 

[futuredoctor10]

Agreed. You won't know the answer to every "pimping" question and that's the point, as mentioned above. Also, that is great that you get some clinical experience as a 1st year... most schools only have standardized patients!