Osteopathic Schools Clinical Rotations

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MDpride

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You haven't taken any H&P's? Maye they don't trust you or something. In many cases it's up to the attending to see your value and how much extra work it'll cause them by letting you do stuff. If you're very reliable and hardworking many times they'll let you do more. You may have to ASK and say "hey I want to see that patient" and take initiative to do all you can do. When I'm on rotations I always say "give me more patients" or "let me take some of that work off of your hands" or "I love patient interactions" and then they generally oblige. That being said I did have one rotation where I only shadowed and it was absolutely horrible. My other rotation was like where the attending just wanted to chill and relax and had us do EVERYTHING as in see all consults, do all orders, round on all his patients which was ridiculous (split up between 2 of us med students). Teaching locations are more familiar with students and they're better in regards to knowing what responsibilities to give you and such, but ultimately it's your aggressiveness that will determine your experiences.
 
I'd say your rotations are not the norm. When I did my rotations I was doing the H&P for every admission that came in that day on wards (my cap was 5 a day), family med I had my own patients with a preceptor, peds, psych... all places I saw the patients first and/or had patients I was responsible for (with resident and attending oversight of course). Even opthamology was not observational. Cosmetic derm however, was.

Your school is correct that there is no law requiring preceptors to allow med students to participate. However, most preceptors take students for a reason - to teach them. And you should expect to be taught. Pimping isn't teaching, IMHO.

I'd say you're not getting your money's worth.
 
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It can be hit or miss during rotations. You'll get some where you will get to do a lot and others you will observe. Observation can be really boring and make the day go by slowly. It is much better when you are allowed to see patients on your own and then present to your attending. As far as H&Ps go, you tend to do more of those in the inpatient setting. Generally teaching institutions give you more experience and hands on opportunities than private practice (at least that has been my experience). Sometimes you have to take initiative, then attendings will give you more responsibility. For example, if I am seeing the patient with the attending, I sometimes ask the patient questions or explain things to the patient. This way I can at least show the attending I know something.
 
You really do have the right to be pissed off about this. Rotations should not be simple shadowing (that's for premeds, imo). I don't really understand the sentiment of the preceptor not "trusting" you with the H&P. I understand the attending not trusting you to put in that central line, or not trusting the findings from your H&P (which is a given). But to not trust you to spend 10 min taking a focused history and quick PE? That's ******ed, I mean there's absolutely no potential for harm (aside from an overly enthusiastic rectal from the future general surgeon).

Sounds like your preceptors don't have any interest in medical education and are just letting you follow them in exchange for a couple hundred bucks and free use of the campus gym.
 
My rotations are nothing like that. I have been going in first to do H&Ps since day 1 with all except pathology. We also started with ED and floor consults for GS on the first day.

Edit- you answered my first questions above.

So what rotations have you done so far? Sounds like maybe FM or peds or psych perhaps.
 
where do you go to school?

that is really unfortunate for you, but you will have to be proactive in asking for the opportunity to do things if you want to get practice and learn.
 
where do you go to school?

that is really unfortunate for you, but you will have to be proactive in asking for the opportunity to do things if you want to get practice and learn.

Looks like GA-PCOM. I'm really suprised PCOM would take such a lackadasical attitude, even be a branch campus.
 
My last few rotations also have been a real bust. I've not really had the chance to do H&Ps either. My preceptors like to teach, they just don't like to let me help them much. My family practice rotation was like that. My preceptor laughed when I asked to sew up a lac and told me I would "be getting plenty of this stuff when I go on to ortho residency".
 
My last few rotations also have been a real bust. I've not really had the chance to do H&Ps either. My preceptors like to teach, they just don't like to let me help them much. My family practice rotation was like that. My preceptor laughed when I asked to sew up a lac and told me I would "be getting plenty of this stuff when I go on to ortho residency".

I'd kick that attending in the nutsack.

Honestly, I'm quite deficient when it comes to procedural experience. I think it's like that at a lot of academic centers too though. I know I spent time at those centers and students just observed procedures. The time for you is to learn to do H/Ps, continue learning the pathophysiology, and start considering what "the next steps" would be in the mgmt of a patient.. also, know how to interpret lab values and imaging studies. the procedures will come in due time. you'll learn how to sew in gen surg or obgyn or both, i did.
 
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