starting medicine

[obiwan]

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i kinda got screwed over by my school and was switched over from OBGYN to medicine for my first rotation. i'm actually interested in doing medicine as a specialty which is why i chose it later to have some experience under my belt instead of looking like an idiot which is whats going to happen.

does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do to try to keep up with the learning curve and not look like I have no idea what to do?

 

[noentiendo]

people tend to over think the order of their rotations. the attendings and residents know this is your first rotation so just work hard show up on time. read up on your patients so you can answer ?s during rounds.

 

[Law2Doc]

people tend to overthink the order of their rotations. the attendings and residents know this is your first rotation so just work hard show up on time. read up on your patients so you can answer ?s during rounds.

Well, yes and no. I don't think doing medicine first will be of any real harm to the OP. But I do think the "ideal" situation would have been not to do your target clerkship first if you had a choice, for the following reasons; (1) you will $uck as a med student during your first rotation. We all did. You don't know what you are doing, and the learning curve is very steep. You don't know how to read the charts, you don't know what belongs in a note, you don't do the best physical exam and you don't know how to present. Some residents and attendings will be patient with you, some won't. Some will give you the benefit of the doubt that you are still just starting, others will expect you to have somehow magically picked up stuff "on the street" before you started. Your grade will depend on what kind of expectations they had for you, which may or may not be realistic. So just go with it, and learn from it.
(2) for LOR purposes, I think it's advantageous to have your target clerkship later in the year because most people aren't focused on this at the beginning of third year and most attendings will have seen a lot of third years and totally forgotten about you by the time you actually ask them for a letter.

 

[yohimbine1]

you will $uck as a med student during your first rotation. We all did. You don't know what you are doing, and the learning curve is very steep. You don't know how to read the charts, you don't know what belongs in a note, you don't do the best physical exam and you don't know how to present.

Yay, comforting. Really.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

The thing is, attendings KNOW you suck as a newly minted third year student. They expect that. You can still be impressive even if you're rough around the edges. For example, bring in articles/volunteer to do short presentations post rounds (Attendings go CRAZY for this stuff, at least at my institution).

Also your enthusiasm is very important. Let the attending see that you really care (about your patients and about learning) and that goes a long way.

 

[Law2Doc]

The thing is, attendings KNOW you suck as a newly minted third year student. They expect that.

Agree in principle, disagree in application. They SHOULD know and expect that. Not all do. I know of an attending who yelled at the new med students for not getting brought up to speed by the prior year's clerks. I kid you not.
Part of the problem is that you may be starting fresh in August, but for attendings it's one long circle, and they forget whether you are at the beginning or the end.

 

[jdh71]

i kinda got screwed over by my school and was switched over from OBGYN to medicine for my first rotation. i'm actually interested in doing medicine as a specialty which is why i chose it later to have some experience under my belt instead of looking like an idiot which is whats going to happen.

does anyone have any suggestions on what I could do to try to keep up with the learning curve and not look like I have no idea what to do?

Also remember you still have any number of 4th year Sub-Is to shine, if it's medicine you want to do. PDs will look at the Sub-Is as much if not more than your regular clerkship.

 

[NPR]

Won't matter. I got assigned OB for my very first rotation.

I absolutely hated it. Absolutely had no idea what I was doing.

And the rest of 3rd year was spent trying to recapture (at least academically) my successes in that rotation.

They know at the beginning that you'll be even more worthless than a regular MS3. Trying hard is more than half the battle with that 1st rotation.

 

[noentiendo]

What you all forget to remember is that there will be new interns starting too. We all know the interns haven't done any real medicine for like 6 months. So as a 3rd year fresh off the boards you will be more knowledgeable than them. Plus they will be fairly incompetent in the day to day work at first and will be rusty themselves. I did medicine as my first rotation and I found that the attendings were too busy trying to get the interns up to speed to notice that I wasn't very good. They will be impressed when you throw out some zebra from step 1 studying though.

 

[yohimbine1]

I'm already planning on packing a Pocket Medicine and a small Pharmacopeia; I see some people recommending a Sanford antimicrobial guide. Should I get one or what? I think my white coat is going to weight a lot in the beginning...my neck is going to hurt

Oh and I'm packing a Maxwell's too. I feel like I'm going to be a walking bookshelf. Do we really need all these pocket books when there are computers and internet everywhere these days? What purpose do these pocket books serve?

 

[surrender903]

I'm already planning on packing a Pocket Medicine and a small Pharmacopeia; I see some people recommending a Sanford antimicrobial guide. Should I get one or what? I think my white coat is going to weight a lot in the beginning...my neck is going to hurt

Oh and I'm packing a Maxwell's too. I feel like I'm going to be a walking bookshelf. Do we really need all these pocket books when there are computers and internet everywhere these days? What purpose do these pocket books serve?

for my medicine rotation i had a sabatine (pocket medine), and a maxwells with flashcards in it so i could write something down if i needed to. i was lucky enough to be able to afford a pocket pc so i used epocrates when i needed to, and if i wanted to read something that was not available on either of those resources, the pc terminals had uptodate.


my white coat has 5 pockets, UL,LR, LL, inner left, inner right. i disliked wearing my stethoscope around my neck so i just kept it in my LR pocket. UL was my maxwells, flashcards and pens, LL was my patient list, papers and sabatine (im left handed), inner pockets were money, food, listerine breath strips, tissues, chap stick.

 

[lilnoelle]

I'm already planning on packing a Pocket Medicine and a small Pharmacopeia; I see some people recommending a Sanford antimicrobial guide. Should I get one or what? I think my white coat is going to weight a lot in the beginning...my neck is going to hurt

Oh and I'm packing a Maxwell's too. I feel like I'm going to be a walking bookshelf. Do we really need all these pocket books when there are computers and internet everywhere these days? What purpose do these pocket books serve?

Yeah, I've got all of these things. It does seem like a bit much, but we were advised to have them by our fourth year students, so I'm gonna keep 'em there for now. We have PDA's with epocrates as well - and there may be some overlap, but I think there are some things the books will do better than the PDA will, and so for now, I'm towing both.