Freaking Clinicals....

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BamaAlum

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Hey guys,
I hope all of you waiting to finalize your ROL having a beer about now (Is it tonight or was it last night?) Anyway, my freakin' school has one of the worst criteria for honors I have ever seen. We have to get >90% on our evals, >90% on our exams and submit a "quality" research paper to qualify for honors. Needless to say it is no cakewalk. Supposedly, the school wants less than 5% of the class to honor in any rotation. I missed honors for surgery by one question and I didn't get my paper in for IM by the deadline (ten days from the end of the rotation). I still have a few core rotations left so it is conceivable that I could honor those. How much is it going to hurt me when I apply if all they see is Pass? We only have Honors, Pass and Fail. My preclinical grades are good and my Boards are well above the national mean, but will this raise eyebrows if I don't honor anything?

Anyway, congrats to everyone that is matching this year! Your experiences will no doubt be valuable to those of us applying next year.
 
I think that clinical grades only are only important if you happen to fail a rotation. Different schools have different grading scales so a grade of honors from school X doesn't equal honors from school Y. Just concentrate on getting good LOR's and keep a clean academic record and you will do just fine. My experience has been (for what its worth) is that most programs will look at you transcript more for red flags than anything else. Your dean's letter will tell them where you rank in the class which is probably as much info as they care to know about. Whether or not you were a stud in biochem or during your ob-gyn rotation didn't matter much. (Things may be different if applying to other specialties.)
 
BamaAlum said:
Hey guys,
I hope all of you waiting to finalize your ROL having a beer about now (Is it tonight or was it last night?) Anyway, my freakin' school has one of the worst criteria for honors I have ever seen. We have to get >90% on our evals, >90% on our exams and submit a "quality" research paper to qualify for honors. Needless to say it is no cakewalk. Supposedly, the school wants less than 5% of the class to honor in any rotation. I missed honors for surgery by one question and I didn't get my paper in for IM by the deadline (ten days from the end of the rotation). I still have a few core rotations left so it is conceivable that I could honor those. How much is it going to hurt me when I apply if all they see is Pass? We only have Honors, Pass and Fail. My preclinical grades are good and my Boards are well above the national mean, but will this raise eyebrows if I don't honor anything?

Anyway, congrats to everyone that is matching this year! Your experiences will no doubt be valuable to those of us applying next year.
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I feel your pain. Clinicals definitely suck. If you want some reading material to help with your frustration, check out the Official Anti-Clinical Medicine Thread.
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=144436.
BTW, I didn't Honor jack **** during clinicals...and I'll let ya know if that "paid off" on March 17th :laugh:
 
Also, whenever a school releases your grades, it will also release what percent of the class got honors, pass or fail. So the residency programs will know that the number of students getting honors is very small.
 
I didnt show up to my last rotation in med school, was outpatient psych something. Went the first day, leveled with resident I didnt give a crap about this and I would rather play video games. He agreed to check the pass box when the eval came around. Didnt have to bribe him or anything! Think my rotation before that was a combo autopsy/neuropath where I told the neuropath person I was doing an autopsy while telling the autopsy person I was at neuropath sign outs. The ole switch-a-roo, a classic med student slacker move. (something often employed on particularily hienous rotations like OBGYN).
 
LADoc00 said:
I didnt show up to my last rotation in med school, was outpatient psych something. Went the first day, leveled with resident I didnt give a crap about this and I would rather play video games. He agreed to check the pass box when the eval came around. Didnt have to bribe him or anything! Think my rotation before that was a combo autopsy/neuropath where I told the neuropath person I was doing an autopsy while telling the autopsy person I was at neuropath sign outs. The ole switch-a-roo, a classic med student slacker move. (something often employed on particularily hienous rotations like OBGYN).
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The switcheroo is a good tactic. I used that when I wanted to leave early, told the residents I had a lecture or was supposed to go to clinic. Then told the lecture people there was an interesting case or something. I got honors in surgery. 😳 I guess I didn't do it that much during surgery though, was more common during medicine.

But in response to the original question, don't worry too much about it. Passing grades in med school are "good scores" so if you do this you are still a good student. Honors are nice, but they really don't mean anything. And don't forget, your school sends out a dean's letter in which they talk about the whole class and where students fall in terms of grades - thus programs can read for themselves that only 5 people in the class (or whatever) get honors.
 
LADoc00 said:
I didnt show up to my last rotation in med school, was outpatient psych something. Went the first day, leveled with resident I didnt give a crap about this and I would rather play video games. He agreed to check the pass box when the eval came around. Didnt have to bribe him or anything! Think my rotation before that was a combo autopsy/neuropath where I told the neuropath person I was doing an autopsy while telling the autopsy person I was at neuropath sign outs. The ole switch-a-roo, a classic med student slacker move. (something often employed on particularily hienous rotations like OBGYN).
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i loved that "gots lecture" excuse. on our surgery rotation, we were supposed to have lectures every W, Th, F from 2-5. Now sometimes these lectures wouldn't happen. But we would tell the residents that we had lecture anyway and we had to go. Then we went home. Now there was one team where one of the students would actually go back up to the floors around 3 pm and tell the residents that her fellow students were ditching. That &&&&&&& isn't going into pathology. Thank god!

Edit: sorry had to censor something there :laugh:
 
AndyMilonakis said:
Now there was one team where one of the students would actually go back up to the floors around 3 pm and tell the residents that her fellow students were ditching. That &&&&&&& isn't going into pathology. Thank god!
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I did that once accidentally. We were supposed to have an afternoon lecture at a different hospital and it got cancelled. Then there were a couple of late surgeries and they asked us if we could stay or if we had a lecture, and I blurted out that it was cancelled before I could catch myself. I got a dirty look. Then I went to the bathroom and bashed my head against the wall for awhile. Never happened again.
 
yaah said:
I did that once accidentally. We were supposed to have an afternoon lecture at a different hospital and it got cancelled. Then there were a couple of late surgeries and they asked us if we could stay or if we had a lecture, and I blurted out that it was cancelled before I could catch myself. I got a dirty look. Then I went to the bathroom and bashed my head against the wall for awhile. Never happened again.
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gunner
 
I was the accidental gunner. I never wanted to show anybody up or anything but sometimes I did because of my weird recall abilities. Of course, they ended up showing me up with their ass kissing abilities so I guess it evened out.
 
yaah said:
I was the accidental gunner. I never wanted to show anybody up or anything but sometimes I did because of my weird recall abilities. Of course, they ended up showing me up with their ass kissing abilities so I guess it evened out.
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gunner
 
The only mad skillz I had were presenting cases and suturing, and neither of those are gunner skillz. I have plenty of slacker skillz, but I have trouble lying, and that's often necessary (see "switcheroo" posts).
 
stormjen said:
The only mad skillz I had were presenting cases and suturing, and neither of those are gunner skillz. I have plenty of slacker skillz, but I have trouble lying, and that's often necessary (see "switcheroo" posts).
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Yeah, I have trouble lying too. Suturing is a gunner skill though. Actually, the real gunner skill is to put yourself in the position to suture and then shine. I have the opposite skillz. I had a talent for avoiding suturing, and then when I had to do it I only did a servicable job and often the resident had to fix my work. 😳
 
yaah said:
Yeah, I have trouble lying too. Suturing is a gunner skill though. Actually, the real gunner skill is to put yourself in the position to suture and then shine. I have the opposite skillz. I had a talent for avoiding suturing, and then when I had to do it I only did a servicable job and often the resident had to fix my work. 😳
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gunner. takes one to know one. :laugh:
 
yaah said:
Yeah, I have trouble lying too. Suturing is a gunner skill though. Actually, the real gunner skill is to put yourself in the position to suture and then shine. I have the opposite skillz. I had a talent for avoiding suturing, and then when I had to do it I only did a servicable job and often the resident had to fix my work. 😳
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My surgery attending told me I should go into plastic surgery, and he wrote one of my rec letters. 🙂 That's one of the things I'll miss going into Path. I'll always wonder "what if". Or I'll turn around and do an ER residency too so I can do cool clinical stuff on the side. That would be kinda sick though, two residencies.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
gunner. takes one to know one. :laugh:
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You're the one on the left. :laugh:

atrpro.jpg
 
stormjen said:
My surgery attending told me I should go into plastic surgery, and he wrote one of my rec letters. 🙂 That's one of the things I'll miss going into Path. I'll always wonder "what if". Or I'll turn around and do an ER residency too so I can do cool clinical stuff on the side. That would be kinda sick though, two residencies.
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That's what happened to me in IM when I proved myself worthy of chatting up old people about their diabetes. I actually would have considered IM if I didn't have to do the residency! :laugh:

There's an attending here who does clinical Gyn and operates one day a week, and signs out gyn path and does autopsies the rest of the time.
 
yaah said:
That's what happened to me in IM when I proved myself worthy of chatting up old people about their diabetes. I actually would have considered IM if I didn't have to do the residency! :laugh:
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you will become a most competent and, more importantly, compassionate pathologist.
 
yaah said:
There's an attending here who does clinical Gyn and operates one day a week, and signs out gyn path and does autopsies the rest of the time.
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Wait, really? Would you mind describing what training this person underwent? Let me guess: OB-GYN residency, did some private practice, didn't like it, went back for a Path residency?
 
stormjen said:
Wait, really? Would you mind describing what training this person underwent? Let me guess: OB-GYN residency, did some private practice, didn't like it, went back for a Path residency?
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I think that's about right. He only did an AP residency I believe, and he is military so his circumstances were a bit different. He does like private practice Gyn though, because he still does some of it.
 
Today, I just realized that tomorrow will probably be my last "clinical" day ever. All I have left this year is a path elective and a required course on chronic care for long-term patients (mine will be with developmentally disabled children). Looks like I can finally hang up that stethoscope, for eventual use by my kids at Halloween. Kind of weird to think about.
 
geddy said:
Today, I just realized that tomorrow will probably be my last "clinical" day ever. All I have left this year is a path elective and a required course on chronic care for long-term patients (mine will be with developmentally disabled children). Looks like I can finally hang up that stethoscope, for eventual use by my kids at Halloween. Kind of weird to think about.
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Yeah - last day of clinical crap is an interesting thing. Don't forget to start crying when it's almost over. 😎
 
yaah said:
Yeah - last day of clinical crap is an interesting thing. Don't forget to start crying when it's almost over. 😎
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Last day of clinical is a triumphant moment. However, the rush doesn't last for long. But the initial rush is a beautiful feeling.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
Last day of clinical is a triumphant moment. However, the rush doesn't last for long. But the initial rush is a beautiful feeling.
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Yeah that's true, that's why you have to be real melodramatic like me, and make a long post about it, then you an always reference it.

Take notes during your last clinical day: This is the last time I will have to... etc.
 
1 more day of this lousy short coat and I'M FREAKIN' DONE! Any 2nd years interested in buying my white coat? Bids starts @ $0.25 on Ebay tomorrow at noon!

Please make note: it's been signed both by Andy and Yaah.
 
I have two more months of clinical rotations. Fooey on you all!
 
yaah said:
You're the one on the left. :laugh:

atrpro.jpg
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A blast from the past! Whatever happened to those Nelson twins??

...Anyhoo, in light of this thread's title, I would like to inform you that I just suffered through my LAST overnight call in surgery, AND had my oral examination today (my post-call day, no less!)!!! Only a few more days to go!!

Our program doesn't let us do anything in the OR except scrub, hold retractors, and CUT sutures. It's probably a good thing, because no doubt I would royally screw up someone's sutures! 😳
 
Brian I think I posted about being in the OR with a neurosurgeon who had me cutting suture for him. His instructions - "Cut two millimeters from the knot." After I was finished he went back with his own scissors and corrected my work. What fun that was!
 
How do you correct an already-cut suture?
 
yaah said:
Brian I think I posted about being in the OR with a neurosurgeon who had me cutting suture for him. His instructions - "Cut two millimeters from the knot." After I was finished he went back with his own scissors and corrected my work. What fun that was!
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And here I thought I was the only one who couldn't cut! I even had an attending say: "I thought you wanted to be a Pathologist? Don't they cut?"
....yeah, smart a$$, they do. (He then tried to cut the suture, realizing that it was not me, but the SUTURE SCISSORS that were dull and wouldn't cut anything! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! :laugh: :laugh: )
 
FindingMyself said:
How do you correct an already-cut suture?
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Well, most of them I cut too long so he went back and trimmed. One I cut too short so he took it out, put another one in himself, and trimmed it. Sheesh.
 
Brian Pavlovitz said:
And here I thought I was the only one who couldn't cut! I even had an attending say: "I thought you wanted to be a Pathologist? Don't they cut?"
....yeah, smart a$$, they do. (He then tried to cut the suture, realizing that it was not me, but the SUTURE SCISSORS that were dull and wouldn't cut anything! MUHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! :laugh: :laugh: )
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I'm doing plastics now and this guy is OCD with suture length....also, it's not good to cut the knot on a running suture :wow: not good...thankfully, he's a perfectionist, but cool. He scolded me, but then we went out and smoked together....oops...did I just admit to being a closet smoker....sue me...med school sucks and I like nicotine!!!
 
after the ROL certification deadlines have passed, the gag order has been lifted. People are coming out of their shells. This is beautiful!

perhaps i should come out of my shell! oh wait, i'm bad enough already as it is :laugh:
 
AndyMilonakis said:
after the ROL certification deadlines have passed, the gag order has been lifted. People are coming out of their shells. This is beautiful!

perhaps i should come out of my shell! oh wait, i'm bad enough already as it is :laugh:
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i would think that a person who starts a thread titled,"I farted" is officially out of thier shell.
 
AndyMilonakis said:
after the ROL certification deadlines have passed, the gag order has been lifted. People are coming out of their shells. This is beautiful!

perhaps i should come out of my shell! oh wait, i'm bad enough already as it is :laugh:
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Who are you, Andy Milonakis? 😕 😛
 
One general surgeon let me tie suture knots in the gut, which is a pretty important job because you have to worry about leakage of bowel contents into the peritoneal cavity. I like to think it's because he though I was good, but then he was also retiring that month and probably didn't care about being sued anymore.
 
stormjen said:
One general surgeon let me tie suture knots in the gut, which is a pretty important job because you have to worry about leakage of bowel contents into the peritoneal cavity. I like to think it's because he though I was good, but then he was also retiring that month and probably didn't care about being sued anymore.
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maybe it WAS because you were good.

stop being such a negative nancy. 🙂
 
stormjen said:
One general surgeon let me tie suture knots in the gut, which is a pretty important job because you have to worry about leakage of bowel contents into the peritoneal cavity. I like to think it's because he though I was good, but then he was also retiring that month and probably didn't care about being sued anymore.
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We had one gyn-onc attending who would let you do almost anything if you could name the structure, associated structures, etc. I didn't try pushing her that far though with my mad knowledge of the uterine ligaments.
 
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