typical day of UWO med students

[kevinkwon84]

Just curious, what is the typical day like for first year med students (UWO)?

[spiceandsausageburglar]

Hi there,

I'm not a UWO student so I don't have the answer. However, I do remember a thread a while back that covered this topic so give it a search.

ciao

[greatgefilte]

Just curious, what is the typical day like for first year med students (UWO)?

 

I think you may have to wait until everyone gets back from March Break before other people answer!

 

Generally, lectures are given from 8:30-11:30, with the 11:30-12:30 hour scheduled for an additional lecture, an online independent learning module, or nothing at all. Labs and case-based small group learning sessions are also held during these hours.

 

On Mondays, we have a Community Health lecture (epidemiology, ethics, ecosystem health) from 1:30-3:30. There are also two other small-group sessions scattered throughout the week (the days/times change every semester), PCCIA, which is often focused on the patient-centred components of the week's learning; and PCCM, where we do things like practice interviewing and physical exam skills.

 

Two afternoons are completely free. Some people do nothing, others study, do observerships, play sports, volunteer, do research -- pretty much anything.

 

Does that answer your question?

[spiceandsausageburglar]

Thank you for the nice response, I actually have a follow-up question. How much patient contact do uwo students get in their first year? Also, what kind of rural experience do you get b4 clerkship?

[spiceandsausageburglar]

oh and one more thing, you guys get a march break!!???

do the other medschools get this too? If not, it'll just be one more point for UWO in my books, though UWO is already my first choice hands down!

[Jewels1986]

I think all the schools except Mac get a March break. Not sure though. And it's instead of reading week, rather than extra.

 

You get some patient contact during PCCM (clinical methods) - how much depends on your preceptor. There's a geriatric day at a local hospital, and patients come in to talk to the class sometimes for "case of the week". And at the end of first year there's rural discovery week, which is an entirely clinical week with a doctor somewhere in the SWOMEN area. Other than that you can have as much or as little patient contact as you want, depending on how many observerships (one-on-one shadowing) you do - anywhere from none to twice a week. Some doctors let you take your own histories and do physicals, but often you're mainly watching and chatting with the doctor about questions you have after.

[greatgefilte]

Also, what kind of rural experience do you get b4 clerkship?

 

In addition to the rural discovery week, there are also summer clinical placement in rural areas, though these are open to students from all schools, not just Western. You can spend 4 weeks way up north, or out near a lake, or in the middle of nowhere -- it's a great learning experience since there aren't any meddling clerks or residents around to get in the way!

[Darla]

Just to add to Jewels and greatgefilte;

 

You also have opportunities to set up observerships in rural settings during the year if you like. Friends of mine went to Clinton, Stratford, St. Mary's and Thorndale last year to see what practice was like in those towns.

 

I know you didn't ask about 2nd year patient interaction, but I'm going to tell you any way

 

You still have the same fabulous observership opportunities as you did in first year but in 2nd year we go into the hospitals for many of our Clinical Methods sessions.

[eng_dude786]

http://www.uwomeds.com/prospective/sampleyear1.jpg

 

this was on their main website and has a sample of schedule for first year students.

[Gob]

 

I know you didn't ask about 2nd year patient interaction, but I'm going to tell you any way

 

You still have the same fabulous observership opportunities as you did in first year but in 2nd year we go into the hospitals for many of our Clinical Methods sessions.

 

Regarding the amount of patient contact you will get in pre-clerkship... I wouldn't worry about it too much. You will see more patients in one day of general surgery clinic in 3rd year than you will in your first 2 years combined. Is this a problem? Not at all. The point of the first 2 years of clinical methods is to learn the basics of the history and physical, and to recognize the abnormal you must first know what a normal physical exam looks and feels like.

[svp2k5]

I would also like to point out that in terms of patient contact/responsibility Western has one of the best clerkships. Western clerks are first call, meaning that they are the ones first called to the ward when there is an issue with a patient (if it is something serious, the resident will get called as well). Also, Western students get great exposure to what Call is actually like for residents. Western med students do many of the Emergency Room consults, write admission orders, preop/post op orders, do admission and discharge dictations, etc.

 

In comparison, many of the other med schools don't have their clerks called about ward issues, or have them do the dictations. Some schools don't even have their clerks stay over night.

 

This may seem like more work (and it is), but I felt very confident going on electives to other schools with this experience. The expectations were generally lower at other places so I felt like I was able to stand out compared to some of my peers their (even though our knowledge was generally comparable).

 

Another great positive is that we do our core rotations all in third year. This means that you do 12 months of your core Surgery, Medicine, Psych, Family, peds, Obs/gyn before you go on electives. Many other schools have their students do electives between their core rotations. This results in some students trying to impress on a Plastic Surgery or Peds rotation without ever actually doing the core rotation first. It would be an understatement to say this isn't a disadvantage when trying to get reference letters/making a good impression for a potential residency spot.

 

The last point I want to make is that fourth year is set up so you do all your electives from Sept - Dec. Transition period classes begin in Jan, and you aren't required to do anymore clinical duties. This is a great time. Lots of opportunity to study for the MCCQE, catch up on sleep and prepare for your CaRMS interviews. You also get 3 weeks off for the CaRMS interviews, so unlike some other schools, you don't have to make up time that you may miss while interviewing.

 

I wanted to throw my 2 cents in here. Many of the schools have similar pre clinical experiences in terms of patient contact, education, etc. I think that Western stands out as having the best clinical training and scheduling.

[Hckyplyr]

How easy is it to get observerships in London? Just curious because there is only the 2 LHSC hospitals (could be argued that there is 3 but Old Vic is pretty much shutting down) and St. Joes.

[Jewels1986]

Pretty easy. For hospitals, there's UH, Victoria (which is absolutely massive), St. Joe's, mental health, Parkwood, and South Street. People usually stay at the first three primarily, though. Plus there's plenty of independent doctor's offices, so no shortage of people to ask, and most are happy to take students.

[Gob]

How easy is it to get observerships in London? Just curious because there is only the 2 LHSC hospitals (could be argued that there is 3 but Old Vic is pretty much shutting down) and St. Joes.

 

'Only the 2 LHSC hospitals'... have you ever been in them? London's catchment area is around 2 million, so don't worry, there's plenty of doctors to work with.

[Hckyplyr]

Well, i've lived in london for 20 years and work at both UH and vic in the radiology departments so i'd say i've seen the hospitals. only reason i ask is because i heard it is ridiculously easy to get them at queens and was wondering what the situation was like at western

[Hckyplyr]

realized that kinda sounded like i was being an ass. didnt mean for it to come across that way. lol.

[crush]

Regarding the amount of patient contact you will get in pre-clerkship... I wouldn't worry about it too much. You will see more patients in one day of general surgery clinic in 3rd year than you will in your first 2 years combined. Is this a problem? Not at all. The point of the first 2 years of clinical methods is to learn the basics of the history and physical, and to recognize the abnormal you must first know what a normal physical exam looks and feels like.

 

I agree with Gob. I was especially jealous of my classmates who had tons of patient contact in first year - my physical exam skills sessions were practicing on each other - but it was only later that I was able to appreciate that it really didn't make a difference and it is almost easier to learn the baseline skills and do them well on a healthy patient than go and see a few cool physical exam findings on a patient with pathology.

[Jewels1986]

If you're comparing to Queen's, I'd be very surprised if it's easier to get observerships there - London's 4 times the size of Kingston and has a huge catchment area, so there's probably quite a few more doctors to observe. But even Queen's and Northern seem to have plenty.

 

This really isn't an issue - you'll have lots of opportunities for observerships wherever you go. The only issue I've heard about is that at McMaster's Hamilton site, there's sometimes a waitlist for the occasional especially popular field like emergency, but that's partly because they're encouraged to do so many electives at Mac.