fourth year electives...do we get hands-on experience?

[ashish_padnani]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Hi friends
I m a final year medical student studying in a med school in India.

I want to do clinical electives in surgery in US med school.

My question is, are fourth year medical students in US allowed to perform clinical examinations on patients?
Are they allowed to get scrubbed in the operations theatres and assist the operations?
Can they give iv, im injections to the patients?
Or i will just have to observe the residents and the doctors perform the clinical examinations and operations?

 

[Anka]

At most places, you'll take the history, do the physical, and write a note. Your resident will often simply cosign your note, although at some places they have to write their own in addition to yours. You'll enter orders for your patient, which your resident will either cosign or verify. The level of procedures you'll do depends on the place, but I've never heard of a medical school that didn't have you placing IVs and drawing blood. If you want to do an IM injection, you probably could, but the nurses usually do that. Things that are more opportunity/school dependent like intubation, arterial lines, central lines... will depend on your residents and the rules of where you're going (some schools don't let med students place central lines due to legal issues). If you do a surgery rotation, you'll generally scrub in and assist. Closing skin is definitly a med student thing; depending on your school/resident/attending you may be doing more than that.

Best,
Anka

 

[pillowhead]

Hi friends
I m a final year medical student studying in a med school in India.

I want to do clinical electives in surgery in US med school.

My question is, are fourth year medical students in US allowed to perform clinical examinations on patients?
Are they allowed to get scrubbed in the operations theatres and assist the operations?
Can they give iv, im injections to the patients?
Or i will just have to observe the residents and the doctors perform the clinical examinations and operations?

At the hospitals my medical school is associated with, the school's own students and visiting students from US medical schools can (and are required to) scrub in. Students from foreign medical schools who are working with semi-private physicians who still do surgery in the academic hospitals are not allowed to scrub in. It's a medicolegal/liability thing.