Clinical rotations are one of the most integral part of your medical school journey. Attending your clinical rotations allows you to venture out of the classroom into actual medical settings where you get a chance to observe and treat patients in real life.
For most medical students, clinical rotations start in the third year and involve students visiting different out-patient departments to shadow residents and full-time doctors. Clinical rotations include working in departments like paediatrics, gynaecology, family medicine, surgery, psychiatry and internal medicine.
The knowledge you gain from your clinical rotations can pave the way for your medical expertise and opinions throughout your career. Apart from subject expertise, you also take away valuable insights and lessons which can serve you well in your medical career.
Read ahead to explore some key take-aways from clinical rotations while in medical school.
- Looking for positivity in adverse scenarios
As a clinical rotation student, you might be assigned basic tasks to develop your medical skills while shadowing a resident or a full-time doctor. It can feel demotivating sometimes to be at the bottom of the chain of command.
However, being in such a situation can give you access to basic medical techniques which can form the foundation of great medical instincts. In addition, you will be able to interact with medical staff like nurses and pharmacists which can hone your interpersonal skills.
Maintaining a positive attitude throughout your rotations can help you sustain them and identify unexpected career development opportunities.
- Managing your time
If your medical school curriculum has designated clinical rotations for your third year, you might have to balance them with other priorities as well. Most 3rd year medical students appear for the USMLE Step 1 exam in their third year which means that they prepare for the exam in addition to their clinical duties.
Clinical rotations can be the perfect opportunity to level up your time management skills which can be very useful for the rest of your medical studies. Strong time-management skills can also be beneficial for maintaining a positive work-life balance later in your medical career.
- Recording every new thing you learn on the job
When you are on your clinical rotations, every new patient or medical case can be an opportunity to expand your knowledge. Recording your learnings on the job can help you retain this information for longer and treat patients better.
Most clinical rotation students learn to carry pocket notebooks and pens in their aprons to jot down any new piece of information they encounter. They can use these jotted points for preparing for their exams.
Other important lessons to be learnt during clinical rotations include honing the ability to listen, learning how to work in teams and interact with seniors in a hospital setting.
Invest in a good medical school program today which can help you make the most of your clinical rotations.
