Home Stretch for Cores!

So I am finally on the home stretch of my core rotations. For those of you who don’t know, every medical student has mandatory rotations that they have to do. They are 12 weeks of internal medicine, 12 weeks of surgery, and 6 weeks each of family medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, and OB/GYN. After those are finished, we choose a variety of electives in the area(s) that we are planning to practice in. Some people choose to do some electives just for the learning experience because many specialties can be incorporated into primary care. For example, if you want to be an emergency medicine doctor, an elective in radiology might help you become more efficient at quickly interpreting X-rays and CT scans while in the ER. 

I am about halfway through my surgery rotation which is my last core. I must say, despite my reservations about being in such a large, unfamiliar city, I have had great learning experiences and have had the opportunity to see so much throughout my time in these rotations. Chicago is an amazing place to learn medicine!! I have had very eclectic experiences as each of the doctors I have worked with have been very different from one another, and they have each served different patient populations. 

 My OB rotation was in a very nice small hospital in the northwest suburbs of the city. Going into the rotation, I had a bit of a sour taste in my mouth because I didn’t have the greatest experience when I had my OB/Peds rotation in nursing school. I was also much younger then, and had seen far fewer gory situations than I have seen now and nearly hit the floor as I watched a vaginal delivery for the first time. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it didn’t bother me at all this time around, and (although this is strange for me to admit) I actually had to keep myself from shedding an emotional tear with just about every delivery. It is so amazing what the human body goes through when giving birth and witnessing the immediate connection between a new mom, a new dad, and their new baby is absolutely amazing. During the rotation I got a really good mix of exposure to different things. Our time was divided up between office visits, labor and delivery, and surgery. In the office, we did routine check up and pap smears, DEXA scanning, prenatal care, and minor procedures like colposcopies and biopsies. I learned a lot about healthy pregnancies, and a ton about routine screening and prevention for women. I got to witness several deliveries as well, both vaginal and C-sections and also sat in for a couple of surgeries for gynecological cancers. The attending was awesome and genuinely wanted to make sure we were well versed in the field. He had high expectations of us and also made us do a presentation for the group each week.

My surgery rotation is with an orthopedic surgeon, so we are mostly dealing with musculoskeletal problems. I think it has been a great rotation that will be applicable in just about any field of practice. Hip pain, back pain, and knee pain have to be some of the most common reasons that people seek medical care. It has been great learning how to effectively assess someone and decide where the pain might be coming from. Again, the attending is really great and does lots of extra teaching for us. He has held workshops for us where we learned how to apply splints and casts, another where we worked on our suturing skills (using pigs feet) and he also has us do presentations. He really encourages us to bring him the difficult questions we stumble on as we are practicing for boards and works through the with us. He is amazing with his patients and a true joy to work with. I am learning so much “common knowledge” stuff that I think any doctor, regardless of the field they work in, should know. I would love to do some outreach medicine some day and the skills I am learning in this rotation will help me immensely with that! 

One of my favourite parts about getting to rotate with all of these different doctors is watching how each doctor approaches their patients. No doctor is perfect, but with each one I have found qualities that I admire and hope to incorporate into my own practice. Treating people is a true art form. It is not easy to connect with a stranger and quickly earn their trust and I have seen great examples of doing just that. Of course, I also see things that I would never do…but those things are just as much of a learning experience. It is like a fun journey where you pick up all of the great, positive things you see and put them in your pocket and simply leave the things that you don’t want to take with you. I am excited to start focusing in more on my big interests and to continue to work on becoming the great physician that I know I will soon be.

As always, thanks for reading and please feel free to contact me if you are a current student or hopeful soon-to-be student and you have questions!

XOXO