Medical school coursework in an MD program breaks down into two distinct stages: basic science and clinical medicine. The former focuses on developing a strong foundational knowledge by rigorously teaching medical theories while developing clinical skills. In comparison, the clinical medicine program aims to develop highly advanced medical knowledge through intensive lectures and clinical rotations. Clinical rotations mark the most crucial phase as the students transform into medical doctors working with real patients for the first time.
Clinical rotations come with their challenges, but reading this article can help you form a good impression during clinical rotations.
Impressing your seniors and supervisors during clinical rotations is entirely subjective. Still, there are some basic things that you can do to mark a good impression on your team and supervisors. Clinical rotations are the most exciting phase that can enrich you with the abundance of knowledge and hands-on training that can help you impress in your residency as well.
Here’s how to impress on clinical rotations:
Formulate a Plan: Before entering the clinical rotations, make sure you plan to make the most out of your rotations in teaching hospitals. More importantly, you will evolve from a medical student to a medical doctor during this time. Thus, reading a lab report and conveying the meaning would not be enough at this stage. During clinical rotations, the students must read and interpret the lab report while developing an effective treatment plan.
Examine your patient: A complete physical exam is a crucial part of the pre-rounding process, as the results may require you to change the treatment plan to get the desired result. Hence, do not fear the patient. A critical examination may need you to be strict with them. But this is the best time to learn and figure out the best way to handle different patients.
Know your patients well: As a student in clinical rotation handling patients for the first time, you must know all about the patient more than your supervisor. Hence, knowing your patient’s overall medical history can impress your attendee and supervisor.
Follow through with your tasks and be a reliable resource: Any student in clinical rotation must themselves towards a given task and execute it with utmost perfection. Moreover, dealing with a patient requires you to be responsible for their health, thus, ensuring proper examination, result, and treatment while constantly updating and consulting with the senior doctor.
Read before asking: Asking too many questions without taking the labor or looking for it yourself may negatively impact your team and supervisor. Hence, before you ask, take the initiative to look for it into books and available online resources. Finding an answer on your own demonstrates sufficiency and proves to be a real-world skill. However, you have the opportunity to ask questions during the rotation that shows your enthusiasm in learning new medical terms or techniques.
Embrace Professionalism: In a medical setting, you must adapt to being professional with the patients, supervisors, seniors, and teammates. Being professional means following etiquette and ethics in the workplace. Nothing impresses people around you more than your professional code of conduct. Moreover, future health professional students are expected to act as healers and leaders to earn trust.
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