Post by Betsy on May 28, 2006 1:13:47 GMT -5
ORIENTATION:
First day of surgery clerkship, report to the 4W surgery auditorium at 6:45AM. Here, you will be given a brief orientation to the surgery clerkship by Dr. Nesbit. All students go to the orientation, which ends by 7:20 or so. Out of town students, and students on subspecialties will then report to their respective teams (Grace Halstead will let you know where to go). Students on general surgery (VA and MCG) will stay for morning lectures at 7:30, including M&M, grand rounds, and clinical lectures. This usually lasts until 10-11 am. (You will come to this every Monday if you are on general surgery). Then you report to your specific teams.
CALL SCHEDULE:
Call schedule will be emailed to you about 2 weeks prior to the rotation. You take 5 calls on your general surgery month, usually q4. You take 2 emergency calls and 3 trauma calls, or vice versa (depending on your luck). You can switch with another student if you wish. Pagers are provided, and make sure you HAND OFF the pagers to the next student on call (Dont leave the pager somewhere, even in the locked student lounge, as they can walk off......trust me, I learned the hard way.....not good).
Call starts at 6pm on weekdays, 7am-7am on weekends. All calls are overnight, and you get to sleep in the lovely student call rooms.....that is if you get to sleep.
TRAUMA CALL:
You get the trauma pager which is on the continuous trauma call, meaning it will go off with a text page of the trauma level, and the estimated arrival time. Residents dont page you, just show up in the trauma bay in the ER when the pager goes off. This was a great experience, although you get little sleep. You get to see how a trauma patient is initially evaluated and managed. Have 2 warm blankets ready as soon as they roll in, you will help put these over the patient as their clothes are cut off. You will help roll the patient when they are initially evaluated. You may be asked to get some history from the patient or family. May get to place the foley. Then the patient will get some xrays in the ER, then off to the CT scanner, where you will help transport the patient. After the scanner, you may get to help split fractures and suture lacerations. Then you kind of sit around until they are transported to the floor. I guess if they go to surgery, you will get to scrub in (I never had a trauma surgery). Lots of intoxicated individuals which leads to plenty of entertainment. I had a patient rip off a c-collar (over his head, without taking off the velcro.....I was extremely surprised that he did not break his neck by taking it off, or rip off his nose), throw it at me, and cuss me out. I also had another drunk dude that was stabbed that insisted on smiling and flashing peace signs every time he was xrayed. Pretty riveting stuff. Most patients are level 2 trauma which means not as serious as level 1. Usually MVA, GSW, stab wounds.
EMERGENCY CALL:
For the most part, a complete waste of time. You page the resident when you start call, and they will call you if they need you. I had 3 emergency calls, and got called in for one surgery (an appendectomy). I only think that 4 students were called in for the entire month. Thing is, you have to stay in house (unless your resident says otherwise, but dont ask to leave). Lots of time to make up for missing sleep.
LECTURES:
Grace Halstead sends out the lecture schedule at the beginning of the month, then with daily revisions. (Quick flashback of emails from Dr. Wragg during 2nd year *Shudder*) Lectures are pretty much 3-4 times a week from 4-5pm in the surgery auditorium. Apparently if you sign in for 90% of the lectures, you will get rounded up on your average? I think that these are for the most part a complete waste of time. The topics are occasionally interesting, but not very useful for the shelf examination. Oftentimes the lecturers didnt show. Alot of narrowly focused topics......blah blah blah
If you are about to start the surgery clerkship, stop reading this thread, and go get some sleep........you are gonna need it.
First day of surgery clerkship, report to the 4W surgery auditorium at 6:45AM. Here, you will be given a brief orientation to the surgery clerkship by Dr. Nesbit. All students go to the orientation, which ends by 7:20 or so. Out of town students, and students on subspecialties will then report to their respective teams (Grace Halstead will let you know where to go). Students on general surgery (VA and MCG) will stay for morning lectures at 7:30, including M&M, grand rounds, and clinical lectures. This usually lasts until 10-11 am. (You will come to this every Monday if you are on general surgery). Then you report to your specific teams.
CALL SCHEDULE:
Call schedule will be emailed to you about 2 weeks prior to the rotation. You take 5 calls on your general surgery month, usually q4. You take 2 emergency calls and 3 trauma calls, or vice versa (depending on your luck). You can switch with another student if you wish. Pagers are provided, and make sure you HAND OFF the pagers to the next student on call (Dont leave the pager somewhere, even in the locked student lounge, as they can walk off......trust me, I learned the hard way.....not good).
Call starts at 6pm on weekdays, 7am-7am on weekends. All calls are overnight, and you get to sleep in the lovely student call rooms.....that is if you get to sleep.
TRAUMA CALL:
You get the trauma pager which is on the continuous trauma call, meaning it will go off with a text page of the trauma level, and the estimated arrival time. Residents dont page you, just show up in the trauma bay in the ER when the pager goes off. This was a great experience, although you get little sleep. You get to see how a trauma patient is initially evaluated and managed. Have 2 warm blankets ready as soon as they roll in, you will help put these over the patient as their clothes are cut off. You will help roll the patient when they are initially evaluated. You may be asked to get some history from the patient or family. May get to place the foley. Then the patient will get some xrays in the ER, then off to the CT scanner, where you will help transport the patient. After the scanner, you may get to help split fractures and suture lacerations. Then you kind of sit around until they are transported to the floor. I guess if they go to surgery, you will get to scrub in (I never had a trauma surgery). Lots of intoxicated individuals which leads to plenty of entertainment. I had a patient rip off a c-collar (over his head, without taking off the velcro.....I was extremely surprised that he did not break his neck by taking it off, or rip off his nose), throw it at me, and cuss me out. I also had another drunk dude that was stabbed that insisted on smiling and flashing peace signs every time he was xrayed. Pretty riveting stuff. Most patients are level 2 trauma which means not as serious as level 1. Usually MVA, GSW, stab wounds.
EMERGENCY CALL:
For the most part, a complete waste of time. You page the resident when you start call, and they will call you if they need you. I had 3 emergency calls, and got called in for one surgery (an appendectomy). I only think that 4 students were called in for the entire month. Thing is, you have to stay in house (unless your resident says otherwise, but dont ask to leave). Lots of time to make up for missing sleep.
LECTURES:
Grace Halstead sends out the lecture schedule at the beginning of the month, then with daily revisions. (Quick flashback of emails from Dr. Wragg during 2nd year *Shudder*) Lectures are pretty much 3-4 times a week from 4-5pm in the surgery auditorium. Apparently if you sign in for 90% of the lectures, you will get rounded up on your average? I think that these are for the most part a complete waste of time. The topics are occasionally interesting, but not very useful for the shelf examination. Oftentimes the lecturers didnt show. Alot of narrowly focused topics......blah blah blah
If you are about to start the surgery clerkship, stop reading this thread, and go get some sleep........you are gonna need it.
