Is it feasible to keep doing clinical volunteering during PhD?

[narla_hotep]

I'm currently about 3 months into my PhD. At my school, they have us do 6 months of clinical rotations before doing the PhD, so I have some clinical experience already. I had the idea that I could keep volunteering at a free clinic every month or two during my PhD in order to at least slightly keep myself in the medicine mindset and maybe not forget everything. But now, even after 3 months of not seeing patients, I'm signed up to go to the clinic today and am kind of dreading it. I have anxiety issues, and I'm afraid I'll embarrass myself by demonstrating how much medical knowledge / exam skills I've forgotten already. And 3 months without clinical experience isn't that bad, but I'm afraid it will only get progressively more embarrassing / anxiety-inducing with each time I volunteer due to forgetting more and more medicine each time.

Do you guys think it's feasible to keep doing clinical things occasionally during PhD, or should I leave medicine alone and just embrace the forgetting like the rest of my classmates? lol. Bc it'll be rough getting back into rotations in like ~4 years either way.

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[StilgarMD]

Feasible? Sure - I've been doing it and I'm 3 YEARS into my PhD (though it isn't anything like a rotation, it is a mobile health clinic). It sounds like if you have anxiety issues, you're better off focusing. You'll invariably forget things, and if you can't handle this feeling in front of others well, then it won't get any better with time - add to this the inevitable stressful events which come from a PhD (ACE, F30, etc), and you may want to keep yourself sane for as long as possible and focus.

 

[ganglia777]

I'm about to go back to clerkships (WITHOUT having done 6 months before the PhD like OP did), and I feel like I'm going to fail out.
I feel like I should have at least volunteered or shadowed someone a few hours a week, every other week, etc. during the PhD. If you have anxiety issues, don't think of this as extra work, just treat it like an extra hobby.

 

[Neuronix]

I'm about to go back to clerkships (WITHOUT having done 6 months before the PhD like OP did), and I feel like I'm going to fail out.

Everyone feels this way. The reality is that even the MS2s feel this way. The basic science curriculum isn't all that relevant to clerkships a lot of the time anyway, and you can always say "Oh I was in a PhD ha ha" if you get pimped on some step 1 knowledge. We all get through it. What will separate you from others in a good way is your work ethic, organization, and interpersonal skills (both with patients and your team). Even if you're mediocre at all three you are very unlikely to fail out of med school.

I did some shadowing in radiology in my PhD. Didn't help much, obviously. It was a shock coming back, no doubt, but I think it would have been no matter what. Probably better to just focus on your PhD while you're there and avoid clinical distractions imo.