Post by Adam Beall on Aug 14, 2005 22:08:45 GMT -5
I have really been enjoying doing Neurology and Neurosurgery up in Rome. Both Dr. Martin and Dr. Murphy (Neurosurgeons) are great to work with, enthusiastic about having a student, and willing to let me assist with surgery and see plenty of patients in the clinic. Dr Schecter and Dr. Glass (Neurologists) are also letting me spend plenty of time with Neurology patients and let me assist with some procedures such as Botox for muscle spasticity and torticollis patients. Floyd hospital is very student friendly as well with free access to all areas of the hospital, physicians' lounges, a physician's cafeteria, and noon lecture conferences, so don't buy lunch food if you go grocery shopping. Redmond hospital is a little tighter on security, and there are no residents there. You need a security code to get into the physicians lounge there, but Dr. Martin will tell you what it is (well as long as he likes you I suppose).
I spend Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the operating room scrubbing in on 2-4 surgeries such as discectomies, fusions, and laminotomies to treat radicular pain, laminectomies for tumor resection i.e. meningioma, schwannoma, also we do dorsal column stimulator implants and carpal tunnel decompressions, just to name a few. I haven't scrubbed on many cranial operations yet, but supposedly they're pretty common as well. I see patients in the clinic Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-5. I also spend a great deal of time reading CT scans and MRIs and evaluating them in the context of chronic pain. After the first week (really 3 days because of travel and paperwork) I have been encouraged to see patients independently in the clinic and present to an attending, and then I usually observe a focused examination and evaluation by the physician.
You don't really get much ward or rounding time because most of the procedures are outpatient or one night observation, so I suppose this rotation will be somewhat lacking by comparison to MCG in that regard, but the extensive neurosurgical experience, and the opportunity to perform preoperative and postoperative evaluations is probably going to be very unique to this Neurology clerkship. If you are into surgery, this is a great rotation to be on. There is plenty of time to study, and there is no call. You will probably get weekends off as well. Practice your one-handed surgical knots and your suturing with gloves on, because there will be plenty of daily opportunities to use these skills.
The Housing is adequate, pretty nice, but better for guys than for girls. Guys get a smaller house or apartment with one or 2 roommates, but girls live together in a larger house all together (7 or 8 people, medical, and PT students) and may have to share a room.
To sum it up, everyone here is nice, friendly, and eager to teach you something. I give this rotation an A+.
I spend Monday, Wednesday, Friday in the operating room scrubbing in on 2-4 surgeries such as discectomies, fusions, and laminotomies to treat radicular pain, laminectomies for tumor resection i.e. meningioma, schwannoma, also we do dorsal column stimulator implants and carpal tunnel decompressions, just to name a few. I haven't scrubbed on many cranial operations yet, but supposedly they're pretty common as well. I see patients in the clinic Tuesdays and Thursdays 8-5. I also spend a great deal of time reading CT scans and MRIs and evaluating them in the context of chronic pain. After the first week (really 3 days because of travel and paperwork) I have been encouraged to see patients independently in the clinic and present to an attending, and then I usually observe a focused examination and evaluation by the physician.
You don't really get much ward or rounding time because most of the procedures are outpatient or one night observation, so I suppose this rotation will be somewhat lacking by comparison to MCG in that regard, but the extensive neurosurgical experience, and the opportunity to perform preoperative and postoperative evaluations is probably going to be very unique to this Neurology clerkship. If you are into surgery, this is a great rotation to be on. There is plenty of time to study, and there is no call. You will probably get weekends off as well. Practice your one-handed surgical knots and your suturing with gloves on, because there will be plenty of daily opportunities to use these skills.
The Housing is adequate, pretty nice, but better for guys than for girls. Guys get a smaller house or apartment with one or 2 roommates, but girls live together in a larger house all together (7 or 8 people, medical, and PT students) and may have to share a room.
To sum it up, everyone here is nice, friendly, and eager to teach you something. I give this rotation an A+.
