I Start Surgery On Monday
Any advice for the surgery clerkship? Any good books to buy? I start it on Monday; it’s my first clerkship ever. A little nervous. Advice appreciated. Thanks!
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Any advice for the surgery clerkship? Any good books to buy? I start it on Monday; it’s my first clerkship ever. A little nervous. Advice appreciated. Thanks!
This is a medical weblog--a collection of thoughts about medicine, medical training, and health policy--written by a fifth-year medical student.
I recently stopped blogging, as I graduated from medical school and I'm now a physician in my residency training in New York City. But feel free to read and enjoy!
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Try this website:
Study Aids for various CWRU clerkships
http://home.cwru.edu/~cpm4/Med3/
Good luck man…
I start Psych on the 6th of July as my first rotation. 4 weeks of that then 4 weeks of Neuro.
I’m looking foward to it…especially now that the boards are done.
“Surgical Recall”. It looks fairly light and fluffy, but the amount of high-yield facts in that book is simply amazing. Just spend your rotation reading it 2-3 times, cover to cover, if you can…
-sm
Good luck, and don’t worry — they expect nothing out of fresh-from-the-lecture-hall, still-green 3rd years. Especially in surgery.
As for study materials, I second the Surg Recall, though it’s only good for answering questions from attendings and won’t help a lick on the Shelf. For the Surgical Shelf, study medicine. Seriously.
And, um, err … it seems a little strange that the first post recommended the website that, well, is mine. I’m not sure I’d endorse it, but feel free to see if there’s anything of use to you there.
Just remember–surgeons are sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.
If you haven’t had your medicine rotation yet, I’d recommend the old standby “Washington Manual.” It has good practical tips on fluid management, electrolytes, etc. that will hold you in good stead from a physiology standpoint. As far as the rest of surgery is concerned, take the time to read about the surgeries that are scheduled the next day! Nothing p.o.s an attending off more than a student who wants to be “in” surgery, but doesn’t want to study what is going on.
Have fun (the surgery residents are always the most fun to be around)!
Hey dude!! Good luck on surgery - it was my first 3rd year rotation too. Yep, surgical recall is really good for review and quick pre-pimp session studying. The shelf is really hard, esp if you haven’t had medicine beforehand. Don’t worry though, no one else has either. Stick to First Aid or NMS and you’ll be fine. Do most of the Appleton & Lange questions (some of the chapters aren’t necessary.) Stay away from Pre-test for this one, it’s just scary and boring. Just take care of yourself, eat in the mornings, sleeping is usually better than trying to stay up and read articles, and if given the opportunity to leave (ie, your intern says, “Well, you can stick around if you want to, or you can go”) ALWAYS go. And laugh at all your attendings jokes. Everyone does the same clinically on this rotation (retracting and pre-rounding is pretty mindless) so study hard for the exam, this is the one rotation where the exam is everything. You’ll be fine dude!! Good luck!! :)