Clinical Rotations

[IntlMed]

With 57 views in the Clinical Forum and No Replies :confused: , I am posting this thread here:

Hi,
As prospective medical school students, my friends and I have always wondered how the Clinical Life would be ?? So looking for some inputs here ..
I was always told that during Clinicals:
there are no classes to attend
there is only very little (if any) reading involved
there are examinations only at the end of the semsester, and some of them are just plain evaluations from preceptors
you go to the Clinical site at 8 and come back by 5 and you have a normal life after that

Are the above TRUE ?? Coz.. that is what makes me more excited to go :)
Please do not hesitate to break my bubble, if I am hallucinating :twisted:

Any Takers ???? :D

[McGillGrad]

No replies b/c they did not want to wake you up from your daydream.

[rdecastro]

no response because those in clinicals don't have the time or interest?

Generally though, the statements you made are accurate to a point. If you want to be a 9-5 clerk, you can be...however, you'll get a 9-5 letter of recommendation to use during the match.

You get out what you put in.

[krust3]

true true castro!

expect to have the same hours as the residents you work with, expect to read ad nauseam about whatever conditions your patients have.

when i went through my PA surgery clinicals i lived on coffee, mountain dew, and tuna salad. up at 4:30a to start my rounding at 5ish (takes a while to get proficient) to be done by 6:30-7 so i could present my patients to the attendings/residents, then surgery for a couple hours, lunch on my feet on the floors while reviewing labs that were ordered in the AM, then back to surgery, then evening rounds and check out, "dinner", then off to self study while tethered to a beeper for surgery admits from the ER when on call. my feet hurt just thinking about having to do that again....groan....

then again during family practice... got in at 9a, patients every 10-15 minutes until lunch, which was catered by drug reps, then afternoon patients until 5ish, then home. of course there would be rounding on any patients of yours that were in the hospital, but that wasn't every day. needless to say, i LOVED family practice.

there are shelf exams at the end of each rotation and sometimes you will have some token class depending on the school, etc.

outpatient anything is a breeze, but the best learning is at the prisons, er, a, i mean hospitals. :D