how to impress on third yr rotation?

[avgjoe]

So I'm on my third year core medicine rotation. Have a great team of residents, get along well with them, am having a harder time reading the attending. We don't really have too much contact with him apart from rounds and even that isn't that much. So what do I do to impress and do well?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[doc05]

to impress the attending, find out what impresses them. every attending is different in what they expect, so talk to the residents, and tailor your presentations during rounds accordingly. in addition to that, volunteer to present 5-10 minute talks during rounds, maybe 1x/week. if there's another student on your team, be sure to work as a team, do your best not to overshadow one another. good luck.

 

[abalar]

as a fellow third year who just completed his medicine clerkship, I'd say an easy way is to research the current literature on an interesting disease/diagnosis that one of your patients has and bring it in to present on rounds. Be sure to bring copies for everyone in the team, highlight salient facts and, most importantly, state why you chose the topic and its relevance, as the overeager medstudent can often be seen as "trying too hard."

This looks good because you contribute to the team's knowledge and also provide a forum for discussion where you can show what you know...attendings most certainly notice this.

I had a similar problem with my internal medicine attending, whom i'd only see for an hour or so during the day. Bringing in current research literature is a good way to get noticed...it worked for me.

good luck.

 

[Kat11]

I agree with the above posts. Just make sure your talks are not too long or too basic. Current articles are definitely good, especially as your interns do not have as much time to research those. If there is another med student on the team, don't present on a topic that relates to their own patient--this probably won't be appreciated.

Sometimes it is really hard to read attendings and unless you meet with them individually you cannot know what they think of you. I would try to briefly meet with this attending halfway through your rotation, so you can ask him/her how you are doing and what you can improve on. Then, make sure you work on those areas of improvement. At the end of the rotation, briefly meet with the attending again (hopefully before your evaluation is in) to review your performance. Ideally, your attending would have noticed your efforts and improvements. This worked for me throughout my 3rd year and I've found that most attendings are happy to do this (so long as you are not obsessive about your grade).

 

[sacrament]

In addition to the above, I'll tell you what I've scored points with on multiple occasions; browsing MDConsult (or another similar service) for the notable recent abstracts. This only takes only 30-40 minutes a week, and not a week goes by that some article concerning a meat-and-potatoes IM issue isn't published in a major journal, and your attending has probably read it. (Not just stuff about your current patients, but articles on general IM issues that you'll probably see soon enough.) And here's what will happen: you're rounding on the latest rule-out MI admit, and your attending will say "Speaking of MI, anybody happen to catch the article in this week's New England Journal on stenting vs. thrombolytics..." and while everybody else on the team--your senior resident included--is staring at their shoes, you can say, "Yeah, the one that said blah blah blah...?" Attendings eat this up and it's something you can do low-key that doesn't make you look too much like a assclown gunner, which you should always avoid.

 

[Furrball]

All of the above are good tips. But remember you do not want to come across as a brown noser. You want to appear interested in the subject matter and that you make an effort on your own to learn.

I also found that this worked in other rotations. An example is a peds rotation I completed this year where I had to give a talk on some aspect of peds heme-onc. Since I am interested in IM and critical care, I compared and contrasted pediatric and adult treatment of sepsis and septic shock. That way I was able to talk about something I was interested in and was relevant to my audience.