Any tips on how to not fail surgery clerkship?

[nebuchadnezzarII]

This is my last "hard" rotation. I passed OBGYN, IM, and PSYCH and did average on them. Since this is January, they have slightly higher expectations of third years (it seems). I've been dreading the surgery clerkship for a while and on top of everything else, the hours are killing me. I'm not worried about doing well. I just want to learn some essentials and PASS.

What must I do? Again, this is just to PASS. Thank you!

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[Moose A Moose]

Show initiative. Be early. Stay late. Read up before cases. Read at home. Don’t brown nose. Don’t ask too many questions. Don’t pester your residents.

Rinse. Repeat.

 

[WinslowPringle]

Don't worry. It's harder than you think to fail on evals.

Don't lie. Don't call your residents bad names to their faces. Show up to the cases you are supposed to and don't walk out of cases because you feel like being somewhere else. See your patients and come up with some kind of plan. (Hint: if it's general surgery - Ambulate, advance diet, pain control, and DVT prophylaxis is the plan on a lot of your patients). Don't bad mouth your fellow med students to the residents. If your resident asks you to do something reasonable for a patient, do it. Don't pimp other med students or for God's sake the residents in front of the attendings. If you don't know something about a patient, say "I don't know" and don't lie. Ask your resident(s) for expectations - even better if you get it in writing or have formal rotation expectations you can point to. Ask for mid-rotation feedback and get it in writing.

And just don't lie.

 

[nebuchadnezzarII]

Don't worry. It's harder than you think to fail on evals.

Don't lie. Don't call your residents bad names to their faces. Show up to the cases you are supposed to and don't walk out of cases because you feel like being somewhere else. See your patients and come up with some kind of plan. (Hint: if it's general surgery - Ambulate, advance diet, pain control, and DVT prophylaxis is the plan on a lot of your patients). Don't bad mouth your fellow med students to the residents. If your resident asks you to do something reasonable for a patient, do it. Don't pimp other med students or for God's sake the residents in front of the attendings. If you don't know something about a patient, say "I don't know" and don't lie. Ask your resident(s) for expectations - even better if you get it in writing or have formal rotation expectations you can point to. Ask for mid-rotation feedback and get it in writing.

And just don't lie.

This seems doable. Thank you. I am just tired of humiliating myself by not knowing anything.

 

[deleted645092]

The easiest way to pass is to know everything you can about your patients, read about/ watch videos on the surgeries you’ll be in on so you can ask questions, don’t be late, and be nice. Everything else is bonus points.

 

[curbsideconsult]

This seems doable. Thank you. I am just tired of humiliating myself by not knowing anything.

Ahh, yes, third year is wonderful that way. The best you can do in this regard, as said above, is to know as much about surgery and the specific surgery/patient as possible. Also really, really, really know your anatomy. Also, also try to learn some of the main tools used in the OR, read up on the basics of anesthesia (very basic), and practice suturing techniques. You will ALWAYS not know many things, especially in surgery. All you can do is try and show that you're putting in the effort.

Some other tips that seem removed from the realm of the surgery clerkship, but are actually crucial:

• Be nice to the scrub techs/nurses and get to know them - you can find out who's going to be the scrub tech and circulator from the patient chart. Try to go in early to the operating room (in proper attire, including hat and mask), introduce yourself to them, ask if you can help with anything, write your name on the board, and get your gloves and gown for the scrub tech/nurse.
• DON'T touch anything sterile!!! - know sterile technique inside and out. Watch out for anything blue. Some techs/nurses are absolute bulldogs on this and will bite your head off if you're close to contaminating the sterile field.
• If you're not scrubbed in on a surgery, ask the circulator if you can help with anything rather than just standing there doing nothing.
• After the procedure, help clean up the patient - literally just wiping them down with saline and a towel and drying them off so they don't leave the OR with a bunch of blood, betadine, etc. all over them.
• Ask when to get the bed - the patient will need to be transferred onto their hospital bed before they go into recovery.
• Help move the patient - the best place is probably at the feet because it's easy and light and you'll look awesome for helping out.
• Once the patient is transferred onto their bed, go get some warm blankets for them.
• Help clean up - obviously, the cleaning crew will come in and really clean up everything, but you still have to breakdown the sheets, etc. before they come in.

 

[pommes]

Something else that might help - practice your knot tying and suturing skills, starting with basic port closures. As long as you can fumble your way through that, hopefully they'll pass you on the technical part (if they comment on that). You got this!

 

[QueenJames]

Went to only 3 surgeries a week.

I don't care to see appendectomy or cholecystectomy 100 times.

Studied for my shelf the rest of the time.

Missed honors by 3 questions on the shelf and got a high pass on eval for just being where I was supposed to be.

I'll take it.

Answer is... it varies.

Depends on how "hard" your surgery rotation is.

 

[siliso]

Show up 10 minutes prior to on time. Get the list in order and print/fold your chief’s rounds reports. Stand around looking interested, go to cases and retract or whatever while looking interested, and if you want to avoid all that as much as possible if you hate being scrubbed in the OR as much as I do then enthusiastically volunteer to go see consults and write notes (that your residents can C&P and then delete yours) while your superiors are doing their OR thing.

 

[Newyawk]

Went to only 3 surgeries a week.

I don't care to see appendectomy or cholecystectomy 100 times.

Studied for my shelf the rest of the time.

Missed honors by 3 questions on the shelf and got a high pass on eval for just being where I was supposed to be.

I'll take it.

Answer is... it varies.

Depends on how "hard" your surgery rotation is.

Forreal. All these other people are giving really great advice but their advice is 100% honors level at my school. Heck i did some of the stuff they say not to do and i still managed honors...

 

[deleted645092]

Forreal. All these other people are giving really great advice but their advice is 100% honors level at my school. Heck i did some of the stuff they say not to do and i still managed honors...

It’s not really 100% correct that all of the above advice is going to get you honors. It’s all surgeon-dependent. I never necessarily went above and beyond on my surgery rotations. It just so happened to be that the expectations may be to close every case, come in at 5am to pre-round, etc.