Top 10 Don’ts of Clinical Rotations 1. Don’t Complain There are a time and place for complaints and that is when a senior asks you if “everything is going alright”. Believe it or not, we do want you to enjoy your rotation and get something out of it. Do you think I would take the time to write all this bullshit down if I didn’t want medical students to succeed? Whether it is right or not, unsolicited complaints are often construed as whining. Don’t put yourself in this position. Know the time and place. 2. Don’t Act Bored What’s that? The hospital isn’t quite like you expected it? There isn’t a cranky man with a cane constantly giving you diagnostic riddles? Let’s be real here. As a medical student the hospital can at times be boring. Unfortunately a large part of being a physician is doing paperwork. For the most part med students can’t do paperwork. See where I am going here. Please have something in your pocket to study when your resident/attending is doing the more mundane tasks. It will be less awkward for everyone. 3. Don’t Be Late My high school coach had a few very simple rules. The one I remember most: If you’re ten minutes early you are late. Listen, it is nota hard concept. Be on fucking time! People are not going to wait for you. You already don’t know shit, do you really want to miss sign out and start the day knowing less than shit? Be on time, no excuses. 4. Don’t Dress Like a Sleezeball Another one that should be obvious. Sorry but this one mostly goes out to the ladies. I am all for looking at some T&A but I can guarantee the 85-year-old granny that you’re taking care of doesn’t (I won’t speak for grandpa). Two simple rules to follow. If you would be uncomfortable bending over, don’t wear it. If you have to ask or even question if it is appropriate, don’t wear it. 5. Don’t Always Have an Excuse You are a medical student. People expect you to make mistakes, forget to do things, and do the wrong things. It is why it takes so friggen long to become a doctor. Here’s the secret, if you fuck up, no one really cares! If you were truly trying to do the right thing we will know it. What we DO care about is if you try to cover it up or blame it on someone else. This bullshit gets noticed and suggests serious character flaws. Own your mistakes, they are how you grow. 6. Don’t Complain About How Busy Your Life Is Don’t get me wrong. Compared to the vast majority of people you are a very busy person. You know who you aren’t busier than? Attendings, residents, and interns. Take on a head down and get your shit done mentality. It will serve you well throughout your career. 7. Don’t Pimp Other Medical Students If you haven’t figured it out yet there is a hierarchy in medicine. Medical students are on the bottom rung. Stick together! Do not EVER pimp another medical student to make yourself look better. Hint, it makes you look like a douche. I will never forget seeing a 4th year medical student pimp a 3rd year on obscure surgical facts. The 4th year was clearly quite smug with himself. What he doesn’t know is that that single act cost him a spot in our residency program. This is a dangerous game, play it right! 8. Don’t Put Down Specialties “He’s just family medicine, what does he know?” A fuck of a lot more than you do, buddy! I am always amazed when I hear medical students putting down other specialties. Inevitably it is some gunner trying to show off to a senior.We are all in this game together and that “lowly” family medicine doc will be giving you referrals some day (if you make it with that shitty attitude!). It impresses no one. 9. Don’t Ask if this was a Resident’s “First Choice” This might be a pet peeve of mine but I can only imagine it bothers others as well. A number of auditioning medical students have asked me if this residency was my first choice*. Seems like an innocent enough question. But consider the answer. No punk, it actually wasn’t my first choice. Believe it or not I didn’t want to live 2 hours away from Mrs. Survivor D.O. until she completes her residency. There are more tactful ways to ask the question, figure them out. 10. Don’t Be a Douche It all boils down to this. K.I.S.S. Don’t walk on the wild side. Don’t get noticed for the wrong reasons. Work hard and put your time in and you will get noticed. We talk behind your back more than you think. Make sure we are saying good things. Learn it. Remember it. Live it! Above is only a starting list. Believe me, there are a lot more ways to be noticed for the wrong reasons. Let me know in the comments what mistakes you have made to gain unwanted attention. Top 10 Do’s of Clinical Rotations 1. Do Be Prepared As a student on rotations you will have a fair amount of free time. Although I encourage you to use a certain amount of this free time for beer drinking and general rowdiness also be sure sneak in some studying. If you know you are scrubbing a cholecystectomy the next day, please know what Calot’s triangle is. If you are giving a presentation, please at least glance over your slides to make sure you know what the F you’re talking about. It is obvious when you have not prepared and it is painful for everyone to watch. 2. Do Be Willing to Help I very much agree that it is not a medical student’s job to do scutwork. That is my job as an intern and I accept that. However, occasionally you will be asked to perform an apparently trivial task. Please just smile and do it. I like to refer to medicine as a team sport. If I did not think that assigning you a task would be beneficial for the goals of them team as a whole (one of which is your education) I wouldn’t do it. 3. Do Be Interested in All Aspects of Medicine It makes my head explode when I hear a student say, “Well I’m going into XYZ specialty I don’t need to know that.” Are you friggen kidding me? As a medical student your mission is to gain a broad, but not necessarily deep, understanding of all fields. Yes, you do need to know that. Regardless of what field you pursue you will either be consulting or consulted by all of the others. It is imperative that you have a basic understanding of what they do. It is insulting. Someone is trying to teach you something and you’re going to come back with that BS? Not cool bub. 4. Do Ask Pertinent Questions Never forget that your most important goal is to learn. You are paying about $100 a day to learn directly from experts in their respective fields. Use this time to learn things you cannot find in the textbooks! Questions such as “what is the management for atrial fibrillation” show that you need to read more. Questions such as “I know the management of atrial fibrillation is rate-control and blood thinners. Why did you decide not to place the patient on blood thinners in this case?” show that you are thinking on a higher level. 5. Do Spend Extra Time With Your Patients As a medical student I at times felt I had little to offer*. It is a common feeling to wish you could somehow contribute more to the team. The one thing that all medical students can offer is time. Know your patients inside and out. You will be surprised how often a small tidbit you picked up will alter a patient’s care (or at least make you look like a rock star when the attending asks you some off the wall question like how many cats does the patient have). 6. Do Read What Your Resident/Attending Tells You To From time to time when covering a topic an attending, resident or even a lowly intern such as myself might ask you to read up on it. We (usually) aren’t doing this to punish you. We are trying to get you in the habit of delving deeper into the topics and becoming a lifelong learned. It is always embarrassing when later in the rotation we ask you for information on this topic and you respond with a blank stare. In this day of instant access to information on your smart phone there is no excuse. 7. Do Enjoy Life Outside of School Although it may not seem it at times, there is life outside of medicine. During your clinical years is a great time to explore it. The schedule for many rotations is benign. Make sure you make a concerted effort to get a group together to go to the bar, go skiing, play video games, whatever it is you prefer. The mental break will far outweigh any time lost studying. 8. Do Work Well With Other Students Backstabbing. Upstaging. This is ugly shit but it always seems like there is at least one student that tries it. Trust me, it is noticed and it is not appreciated. It makes everyone’s job easier and more enjoyable when the students work well together. These are your future colleagues. You can undo a lot of hard work by being remembered as the dick that made Student Doctor XYZ cry. 9. Do Be Friendly to the Staff Remind yourself that it takes all types to make the world go round. The nurses, unit secretaries and janitors are just as, if not more, important than you. Keep in mind the “Golden Rule” and you will be served well throughout your clinical rotations and career. You never know when that pleasant smile you gave the janitor yesterday will save your ass! 10. Do Bring Us Cookies Please send them to Survivor D.O. PO Box 1169… just kidding. In all seriousness, most of us are working hard to provide you with an enjoyable, educational experience and it does feel nice to be appreciated. A genuine “thank you” is all it takes but baked goods are certainly appreciated! This is only a simple list. It clearly takes much more than the above to succeed as a medical student on clinical rotations. However, I do believe that if you follow the above rules you will be off to a great start. What advice do you have for medical students on clinical rotations? Source
