Surgery rotation

[RunwayModel]

I am starting Surgery this month, my first rotation after my basic sciences. What should I do to get honors? There is the clinical evaluation and shelf exam as usual. Should I be well read in Internal Med and Physical Diagnosis (If so, I'll read Mosby's)? I know that the Surgery shelf has a lot of Internal Medicine on it, so I can either get NMS Internal Medicine/Blueprints/or First AID for the Internal Medicine Clerkship. Right now, I have First Aid for the Surgery clerkship. I really would like to get honors in this rotation and I really do not have an idea of what I want to do but better safe than sorry, I guess. Maybe I should get First Aid for the wards. Any advice is appreciated and any smartalecks should be castrated

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[surgicane]

Although there is a fair amount of internal medicine in surgery, I doubt you will have time to do so much reading either before or during your rotation. Most of a third year clerkship in surgery is spent in the operating room, and this is where most of your contact with the attendings will take place. Make sure you are well prepared for each surgery (i.e read about the cases the night before) and know the patient's history, reason for the procedure, pathophysiology of the disease, relevant anatomy, etc. Surgical Recall is an excellent book to carry around as it provides answers to most of the questions that surgeons will pimp you on, as well as providing alot of basic surgical info that will help you not only in the O.R. but on the wards as well. You might also consider an "essentials" text (i.e. the paperback version) of Lawrence or Sabiston to help you for your exams.

Sorry for the long post....Good Luck!

 

[irlandesa]

The surgeon above has given excellent advice, but I have just a few added suggestions.
1)For the shelf, know the information on vascular, pedi, and breast surgery cold from Recall, word for word. Pretty straightforward material and would be a shame to eat the points.. And time yourself well; my bad timing really brought my score down (and you MUST do well on the shelf to Honor surgery; a score in the 70's or low-mid 80's won't cut it).

2)If you get a chance to show what you know in rounds with residents and/or attendings, DO IT. Even if you have to be a little rude and talk over other students or if you get something wrong occasionally, it is totally worth it. Otherwise, they will assume that your fund of knowledge is merely "adequate" and nothing special. May seem obvious, but keeping my mouth shut too much contributed to the lowering of my grade. Stupid, stupid..

3)If you don't end up getting Honors, try not to be too hard on yourself; Surgery is very tough to Honor and so much of third year grading lies in subjectivity and luck. If you end up with a resident with a bad attitude who is set on giving all the students passes, there isn't much you can do. But, if you end up with a good group of residents and attendings and show interest and a good attitude, you have a much better shot and should get some good comments for your Dean's Letter (I did something right at least!).

G'luck!

 

[SupportingOccam]

(and you MUST do well on the shelf to Honor surgery; a score in the 70's or low-mid 80's won't cut it).


Please be aware that basically every school has its own requirements for attaining honors.

Some schools heavily weigh the shelf exam in the determination of honors while others much more rely on clinical performance grades and more or less only make sure you get 60-something (sometimes less) on the shelf. Of course, check your grading scheme and bust azz accordingly.

 

[irlandesa]

Originally posted by SupportingOccam
(and you MUST do well on the shelf to Honor surgery; a score in the 70's or low-mid 80's won't cut it).


Please be aware that basically every school has its own requirements for attaining honors.

Some schools heavily weigh the shelf exam in the determination of honors while others much more rely on clinical performance grades and more or less only make sure you get 60-something (sometimes less) on the shelf. Of course, check your grading scheme and bust azz accordingly.

yes, I did make a bit of a generalization, you are right. my apologies.. however, I will say that my general impression from reading this board and talking to other med students that the shelf tends to be carry more weight in Surgery than in many of the other subjects at a whole lot of schools. At my school, the shelf is only 25%, but an overall score (exam included) of 90+ is required in most cases for an Honors, 85+ for High Pass, and 80+ for a Pass. We did have oral exam and oral presentations factor into the score as well, but I'm sure you can see that I didn't do myself any favors by scoring just a few points above the national average on the shelf.