How is the med student rotation structured in your department?

[Scatter]

Hi,

We want to revamp our med student rotation, so as to make it more meaningful for the students. Currently, we only have them prepare a talk, but that's about it; they end up "shadowing" most of the time. Any ideas as to what is done at your institution and students particularly like and find useful? Would appreciate any feedback. Thx.

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[Gfunk6]

At our institution the med student rotation is essentially free-form. You can work with whomever, whenever, and however you want. Since we limit the # of medical student rotators to two per month, it is not difficult for them to coordinate with each other. Personally, I prefer this system if you are a medical student coming in from out of state who wants to work with the more notable attendings to gain experience and procure letters of recommendation. Also, it lets you sample attendings and "feel out" which ones you appear to be most compatible with and therefore can focus your attention on.

Other places are the polar opposite where you are given a schedule by the Chief Resident which spells your schedule exactly.

As to the content of the rotation, "shadowing" pretty much covers it. I think you have to be proactive as a medical student and request to participate in activites such as contouring otherwise you risk being relagated to "fly on the wall" status.

 

[radiosliver]

hey guys so something that i would have liked to see as a rotating student was a brief intro to the field, which could have been done basically by almost any radonc resident (maybe not the fresh pgy2s in july).

its true that a number of students already know a lot about the field but a number of them do not (especially in june/july) and so a brief intro covering basic terminology, treatment modalities, the most common treatment sites, etc. would be extremely helpful to students who want to get the most out of the rotation.

 

[LasersPewPew]

a brief intro would be a waste of time.......

just tell them to get the haffty handbook.

 

[Scatter]

That's pretty much what's done in our dept., too. We want to make it different for 3rd and 4th years, precisely ante up the expectations from the seniors. Do your students dictate notes? Is the rotation any different for the younger students?

 

[napoleondynamite]

Personally, I love having med students rotate through the department. I usually stick them with my attending on busy follow-up days so I can get some work done I also use them to contour out normal structures

That being said, I do also try to take time with them during consults to teach them a thing or two so they get the most out of the rotation. But I think that structured correctly, the rotation can be win-win.

 

[Pewl]

a brief intro would be a waste of time.......

just tell them to get the haffty handbook.

I don't think the Haffty handbook goes over departmental flow and what the inherent goals and aims of radiation oncology are. I agree that it isn't hard for a resident to take 5 minutes to talk briefly about it is we do in rad onc.

 

[Neuronix]

Our rotation began with a one hour intro to the department and radiation oncology with one of the chief residents. From there each student was assigned a team, though it was flexible--i.e. if you wanted to see something different you were welcome to move around. There was a meeting during the rotation with the PD to make sure everything was going okay and you were getting what you wanted from the rotation.

On the day to day I would see all new consults for the attending I was assigned to. The resident was shared between two attendings and since both services were pretty busy I felt like I could really lend a hand. Things are structured this way--the busier services tend to get students so they can help out. I would write the notes for all new consults, the resident would review and tweak them a bit, and then they'd be forwarded onto the attending. On the OTV days I would try to see the patients before the attending. I would often see all of the follow-up visits and present them to the attending directly as well. I would offer to write notes or those, but students aren't allowed to enter notes into the EMR and the attendings have quick macros that take care of a lot of the note writing. It was so busy that I didn't worry about making sure I did notes for all the OTVs and follow-ups. When there was any down time I would contour, usually normal structures. At the end of the rotation each student had to give a presentation to their team.

I think this is the best way to structure a rotation. I know some rotations out there are structured with the student going from team to team over the month to get a broad exposure. But, the one thing we need from a rotation is a letter of recommendation, and that structure typically doesn't allow one to work with one attending long enough to get a LOR.