Getting to know faculty

[LilMiss108]

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Hello,
I am a beginning 1st year, and while I know I have a lot on my plate already with class, I was wondering if any of you had any tips on getting to know faculty. If there has been a recent post on this, please direct me to it. Otherwise, any tips would be appreciated! I figure I may as well start early if I have the opportunity!

 

[smq123]

Hello,
I am a beginning 1st year, and while I know I have a lot on my plate already with class, I was wondering if any of you had any tips on getting to know faculty. If there has been a recent post on this, please direct me to it. Otherwise, any tips would be appreciated! I figure I may as well start early if I have the opportunity!

Medical school classes are different from undergrad classes in that you don't have ONE professor that lectures all the time. You'll usually have a rotating roster of professors - some may give just 1 lecture, others may give 6.

The only real reason why you may need to "know" the faculty in MS1 and MS2 is if you want to do research after your first year. But that's iffy too - you can just contact someone who you want to do research with.

(If you hear a clinical lecturer talk about something that really interests you, and you want to shadow him/her for an afternoon, just come up to them after class and exchange email information. Most physicians are pretty good about helping students out.)

The time that "getting to know the faculty" becomes really important is MS3 and MS4. You need to get letters of evaluation from them. But that's pretty far off in the distance for you.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hello,
I am a beginning 1st year, and while I know I have a lot on my plate already with class, I was wondering if any of you had any tips on getting to know faculty. If there has been a recent post on this, please direct me to it. Otherwise, any tips would be appreciated! I figure I may as well start early if I have the opportunity!

In addition to what the prior poster indicated, once you decide what you think you are interested in, you can approach a member of faculty in that field and see if they would be willing to talk to you as a mentor. (Some schools have mentor programs and will even set this up for you). That at least gives you one faculty member you can get to know well.
An third and 4th year, you will be working with residents and attendings and will get all the one on one attention (grilling) you can stand.

 

[naegleria brain]

ive said this before and i'll repeat it here for you:

first year everyone's a gunner; it's quite funny because they think that their gunnerisms are getting them ahead. knowing faculty well those first two years doesn't mean much. don't get nervous when you see your fellow first year trying to invite your dean out for drinks. i've seen it, and i did laugh out loud.

i strongly suggest you embrace the shadowing program and shadow widely to get an idea of what you like - medical or surgical. then get in contact with a mentor and start up some research. third and fourth year you'll get to know the faculty just by virtue of being in a hospital 15hrs a day 6 days a week (the 80hr workweek is a myth at many places, and doesn't even apply for med students)

relax, you do have enough on your plate. rub elbows if you enjoy faculty's company, but dont feel compelled to do so

 

[LilMiss108]

Thank you for your answers. I know that getting to know faculty is not essential, but I have really gained a lot from doing so in the past, and just wondered how appropriate it was during the first couple of years. I have a better idea of going about things now and I appreciate you responding!

 

[Ashers]

I've gotten to know several people in the orthopaedic dept (what I want to go into) by being a clutz and working with some.

I did research for one during the summer between M1/2 year. Through that, I met a few other orthopaedists, at the residents' graduation thing. That same summer, I hurt my thumb playing volleyball, so he got me in to see the hand surgeon. I had also hurt my knee M1 year. I'm just waiting to hurt myself this year now doing something else and get to know another orthopod before my rotation. No one I know would be surprised if that were to happen.

So, if you can get to know faculty by being a patient, it may work too. 😉

M2 year I was a gyn patient (for emergency surgery), and I have no desire to go into that, so I don't plan on using any connections I made there.

 

[AmoryBlaine]

In addition to what the prior poster indicated, once you decide what you think you are interested in, you can approach a member of faculty in that field and see if they would be willing to talk to you as a mentor. (Some schools have mentor programs and will even set this up for you). That at least gives you one faculty member you can get to know well.
An third and 4th year, you will be working with residents and attendings and will get all the one on one attention (grilling) you can stand.

Agreed, it's alot easier if it's specialty-specific. I can't imagine how "getting to know" the PhD who lectured me twice on bacterial genetics would have helped me out.

If you are really thinking about one specialty, consider first find a few M4s applying for that. Talk to them about who is cool. I can tell you that the people listed as "Specialty Advisors" at my school are usually just department chairs or clerkship directors and there is usually some more underground person who knows the ropes a little better. A 60 year old Chief of Surgery may be a great personal resource but chances are he doesn't know as much about the residency selection process as the new hire fresh out of training might.

 

[LilMiss108]

Haha Ashers. That sounds like me. Now there is one way to go about it. I hadn't thought of that....

And I guess I didn't really mean the PhD's either. I should have been more specific. I was asking more along the lines of MD lecturers, so thank you AmoryBlaine.

 

[BlazerMed]

Haha Ashers. That sounds like me. Now there is one way to go about it. I hadn't thought of that....

And I guess I didn't really mean the PhD's either. I should have been more specific. I was asking more along the lines of MD lecturers, so thank you AmoryBlaine.

There likely won't be many of those.

 

[Ashers]

There likely won't be many of those.

Most of our path lecturers were MDs (albeit pathologists), then occasionally they brought in a non-pathologist for a more "clinical" lecture. Anatomy also had a bunch of MD lecturers for us as well.

Our Clinical Exam and Reasoning course was also by MDs in different fields. Then the small groups were led by residents and attendings. Some of the small group sessions had NPs.

Edit: Just as a note. The best path lectures were the ones by PhDs and non-pathologist MDs. In biochem, for example, the clinical lectures were always more interesting than the PhD lectures.

 

[45408]

There likely won't be many of those.

Our lecturers for the most part had PhDs, but we certainly had a steady stream of M.D. guest lecturers, sometimes a few in a week.