Let's talk about... getting your hands dirty!

[bones]

Hi,

 

This may be a bit of a newb question, but I was wondering if there are many opportunities for pre-clerkship students to 'get their hands dirty' and be a part of procedures outside of formal class/schedule? I'm wondering if the hospitals at U of A are such that there is usually a group of clerks, residents, etc. in front of you, precluding your opportunity to 'scrub in'. Are pre-clerks allowed/encouraged to do actual procedures? Despite not knowing as much medical knowledge as, say, a clerk or a resident, I like the idea of practicing one's clinical skills early! Things like suturing, setting up an IV drip, etc.

 

Any current students have anecdotes of doing cool stuff in pre-clerkship?

 

Thanks...

[agregson]

My first clinical experience was around November in 1st year. We spent a couple of afternoons at a family practice clinic. All afternoon we were seeing women for their annuals. After seeing many I got to do a couple of pelvic exams including the speculums! I was really shocked the first time my staff handed me the speculum.

 

Being not that interested in procedures myself I didn't do much pre-clerkship. At the beginning of 3rd year we have link block where you get to learn how to put NG tubes in, IV starts, foleys etc. Our anatomy teachers set up a suturing seminar where we got to practice suturing on cadavers (one of the anatomy teachers is a retired surgeon).

 

In first and second year there are 12 hour electives and I know classmates who did surgical electives and got to scrub in the OR, but I doubt they did any suturing. During my clerkship surgery rotations I always dreaded when they asked me to close the wound because I am teribbly slow and the anaesthetist and nurses would be twiddling their thumbs staring at me! I had most of my suturing practice during my ER rotation in 4th year.

[slypimpdip]

Pre-clinical students get a bunch of family medicine exposure, and you can do your 12-hour elective in anything you want. Once you get into med school, the doors open on anything you want to shadow. Almost any doctor will let you shadow them, because you just tag around them all day, and isn't too much of an inconvenience to them. Now, when you say "getting your hands dirty", I think you are implying on more surgical procedures, and in that case, you can shadow as much as you like with many doctors, but you obviously won't be able to do too much yourself.

There are many workshops and sessions put on by the various clubs during lunch hours, etc. that teach simply skills like suturing, bloodletting, IV's, breast exams, and such. So there are plenty of opportunities that are available for anyone who wants it.

[juicyprunes]

I recommed doing some shadowing in ortho/cardiac surgery - a lot of times the preceptor will let you "do things" - e.g. cut sutures, retract etc. and if you're lucky, a resident will be around to let you get some suturing experience. Before doing this though, it would be a good idea to get a primer from some one about how to properly hold/handle surgical instruments - you'll be yelled at if you hold the scissors improperly. If there are residents around, always look keen to learn from them and they'll be more than happy to let you do things.

[Nephets]

As a "pre-clerk" in Calgary, I got to do lots of things like central lines, femoral lines, intubate, i.v. starts, draw blood, saphenous vein harvesting (for cardiac bypasses), tons of suturing, abscess drainage, chest tubes, etc. The coolest thing was sawing open a chest...like a hot knife through butter. You just need to be keen and you'll get to do lots. Find some docs/residents who like teaching and you'll be in there before you know it.

N.