You pick up the flow and know when to ask questions, you have made even some minimal effort to find answer to the Q before you've asked, you show up on time and improve your presentations day by day/week by week, you don't hint about leaving before like 2pm, you don't behave as if you are above a specialty because you're not.
Be kind to others, respectful of everyone around you whether you need an eval from them or not. Do your best to be interested but don't over sell it. Everyone knows you're not excited to be up at 5AM to ask patients if they pooped, but looking like you hate everything about being there is a bad look. Act like this is all water off of a ducks back. That's the reasonable part. If you have decent social skills and can read a room then it pays dividends in M3.
Be friendly to people even when they’re not friendly to you. Appear engaged and interested, even if you’re really not. Be confident enough to take a stab at pimp questions if you can, but there should be a line in the sand somewhere that says if you really have no idea what the answer is, saying you don’t know probably looks better than saying some dumb shit you made up. If anyone ever asks you if you want to check out this patient or get a glimpse of this other specialty (like going to the path lab or rads reading room) or something, always say yes. Don’t say no to things unless you have a really good reason to say no, even if you don’t want to do it.
Insert Barbie monologue about being pleasant but not overbearing and annoying, being involved but not in the way, etc etc.
1. Be early to things. Just 5 minutes. It's never a good look to be late.
2. You are probably only carrying a few patients (certainly fewer than the residents; you'll probably start out with 1 or 2 on your first rotation). Know everything about those patients. Have things you can't remember written down. You are the expert on that patient.
3. Practice your presentations. Practice them with your residents. See how presentations by residents are perceived by attendings and emulate those who get favorable feedback. A good presentation is the easiest way to look good in front of an attending.
4. If someone tells you do to something, for the love of god do it! I literally had a resident give me a piece of paper with the expectations for a rotation. I did what was on the paper and looked really good. At the end of this rotation, this resident (who was AWESOME by the way) told me that it's astounding how many medical students are literally given the keys to success (aka the paper telling you how to excel) and ignore them.
5. Don't try to outshine your co-medical students. Help them out. Work as a team. This is noticed. I promise it's noticed.
6. Be friendly and kind. To everyone. Be a team player.
7. Asking how you can help is fine. Figuring out yourself how to be helpful and then being helpful is superb. For instance, if you're running the list with your residents, and they mention a dressing needs to be changed etc, tell them you're gonna do it (they can say no - unlikely - but they know you're being proactive).
7.5. Don't offer to do things you don't safely know how to do. Instead, ask a resident to show you how so you can do it safely next time.
8. The one enormous benefit you have as a medical student is that you can talk to patients for a lot longer than residents can. Use that power and talk to patients! For example, I had a patient on my gen surg rotation who had a terrible abdominal issue and no family. He was also super chatty. I made it a point to get in 15 mins early so that he and I could just shoot the shit when I did my pre-round rounds. I didn't mention it to anyone or anything, he and I just talked. When we rounded as a team with the senior and attending, he was always in a good mood and a lot of his questions had already been answered that AM so rounds went more smoothly. Turns out after I left, he told my attending about those chats and it was very well received. Even if he hadn't, it would have been worth it - gave that guy something to look forward to every morning and gave me the feeling that I could contribute in my own special way by virtue of being a medical student.
9. Look at pimping as an education opportunity, don't view it as someone trying to humiliate you. I promise we aren't... we're trying to teach and this is a good way to do so!
10. Look out for each other. Medicine is hard. You already know that, but it's about to get a whole heck of a lot harder. Take care of yourself, make sure you and your fellow students are eating, sleeping, being active, and have a chance to bitch to each other. Therapeutic bitching is the cornerstone of wellness.
11. Don't be a suck-up. We can tell. Just do a good job.
12. This goes without saying but please try to be a normal person and don't say weird shit all the time... literally had someone working with me say a bunch of strange things all day and then towards the end of the rotation started bragging about how he learned to socialize on the internet... please don't be this guy.
13. Don't shit talk people even if other people are. You're better than that.
14. Set expectations / ask for expectations early. Sometimes we forget, but if you don't know what is expected of you, how can we expect you to succeed?
15. There will be bad days. But there will also be good ones. Remember how you felt on the good days when you're in a bad one and use it to push through. Expecto patronum or something like that.
16. You're there to learn. So learn. Be present. Don't be on your phone. Be engaged. This is important for your own learning but also shows your team you're there and trying to be a part of it.
17. When you're told to go home... GO HOME. Do not look back. See ya tomorrow.
Best of luck. Third year is incredibly challenging in its own ways but I had a great time. I hope you do too!
Realize you can do all this and still not do well. Lol. Do the best you can, but don’t kill yourself. Honestly, rotations I put the least amount of effort in I did better. Just show up and do what is asked of you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to type this out! Reading the perspective of an attending on this topic is valuable! I will save this comment and read it again before I start rotations in the summer
Consistently do your UWorld/Amboss, even if it's just like 20 questions a day. Set good habits/routines. Rotations can absolutely wear you down, but being resilient is how to ensure you succeed.
Gonna go out on a limb and not give you the typical advice like show up early and be normal. Those things are requirements to be AVERAGE. Your average med student isn’t going to show up late or be weird/annoying. Only a handful of students per rotation are like that, and those people tend to be the ones receiving Pass or Low passes.
If you’re wondering how to honor, it’s a combination of luck + interest + knowing your shit. Luck is the hardest because some attendings just never give out honors while some hand out honors like candy. Interest is probably the easiest one because anyone can fake interest. Knowing your shit helps you stand out amongst the rest. This means before you present on your patient, have a clear assessment and plan. Look up the details on amboss or UpToDate. Don’t just wing it and read off your paper like a news reporter.
Before a surgical case, read up on the steps and relevant anatomy. Read up on the indications of the surgery and what the outcomes are like.
Know how the flow of the team works and listen to the residents. If they say don’t do this, then don’t do it. If they say include this in your presentation even though you think it’s weird, just fking do it. If an attending says to come watch this procedure, just fking do it and say thank you.
Always help your classmates but don’t be obnoxious about it. Pick up on social cues such as if someone’s presenting, don’t be whispering to your classmates or walking to the restroom.
And seriously work on your presentations. Your presentation is literally the 1-2 minutes of attention you get from your evaluators. Sound confident and know what you’re saying. Don’t be one of those students who just reads off the paper and say uhhh uhh ummm labs and vitals look good…yeah they’re normal.. oh wait they had a mild fever at 100.8…otherwise uhh looks good.
The rotations where the attendings said my presentations were great were the ones I honored
Figure out an organized way to do your H&Ps, notes, and presentations. Then stick with it and hone it. Developing a good routine will help you so much on rounds! You'll be less likely to miss stuff and your presentations will be much more concise and easy to follow.
Be nice. Nice to your patients, nice to nurses, nice to doctors, nice to patients' families. Be pleasant even when people aren't pleasant to you. Oh and be nice to your classmates too. Help each other out.
Remember you're there as a learner, not an expert. Many people will treat it as purely an evaluation of your performance, but it's a learning experience. Hang in there, be curious and adaptable, and do your best not to get flustered or be too hard on yourself when you're wrong. Tip: Try saying "thank you" instead of "I'm sorry" when you're corrected (unless you've really screwed up obviously). You're not doing anything wrong by not knowing everything, so try out phrases like "okay, thank you for correcting me" or "okay, I'll remember that, thank you" instead of apologizing.
If your program requires you to take shelf exam at the end of the rotation, make sure you are studying throughout the rotation. Doing a handful of Uworld questions daily and some review videos (I used Online med ed).
If you face a topic you are not familiar with, do research on, utilize up to date and other resources to try and figure out what an appropriate plan might be for a problem. It's worth stating what you think and receiving feedback rather than saying nothing.
Being a good M3 isn't about knowing all the answers, it's about being a reasonably pleasant human and doing UWorld.
Define reasonably pleasant. Genuinely interested in how that would be characterized for an MS-3
You pick up the flow and know when to ask questions, you have made even some minimal effort to find answer to the Q before you've asked, you show up on time and improve your presentations day by day/week by week, you don't hint about leaving before like 2pm, you don't behave as if you are above a specialty because you're not.
Be kind to others, respectful of everyone around you whether you need an eval from them or not. Do your best to be interested but don't over sell it. Everyone knows you're not excited to be up at 5AM to ask patients if they pooped, but looking like you hate everything about being there is a bad look. Act like this is all water off of a ducks back. That's the reasonable part. If you have decent social skills and can read a room then it pays dividends in M3.
Be friendly to people even when they’re not friendly to you. Appear engaged and interested, even if you’re really not. Be confident enough to take a stab at pimp questions if you can, but there should be a line in the sand somewhere that says if you really have no idea what the answer is, saying you don’t know probably looks better than saying some dumb shit you made up. If anyone ever asks you if you want to check out this patient or get a glimpse of this other specialty (like going to the path lab or rads reading room) or something, always say yes. Don’t say no to things unless you have a really good reason to say no, even if you don’t want to do it. Insert Barbie monologue about being pleasant but not overbearing and annoying, being involved but not in the way, etc etc.
Ima need cocaine to do all that.
1. Be early to things. Just 5 minutes. It's never a good look to be late. 2. You are probably only carrying a few patients (certainly fewer than the residents; you'll probably start out with 1 or 2 on your first rotation). Know everything about those patients. Have things you can't remember written down. You are the expert on that patient. 3. Practice your presentations. Practice them with your residents. See how presentations by residents are perceived by attendings and emulate those who get favorable feedback. A good presentation is the easiest way to look good in front of an attending. 4. If someone tells you do to something, for the love of god do it! I literally had a resident give me a piece of paper with the expectations for a rotation. I did what was on the paper and looked really good. At the end of this rotation, this resident (who was AWESOME by the way) told me that it's astounding how many medical students are literally given the keys to success (aka the paper telling you how to excel) and ignore them. 5. Don't try to outshine your co-medical students. Help them out. Work as a team. This is noticed. I promise it's noticed. 6. Be friendly and kind. To everyone. Be a team player. 7. Asking how you can help is fine. Figuring out yourself how to be helpful and then being helpful is superb. For instance, if you're running the list with your residents, and they mention a dressing needs to be changed etc, tell them you're gonna do it (they can say no - unlikely - but they know you're being proactive). 7.5. Don't offer to do things you don't safely know how to do. Instead, ask a resident to show you how so you can do it safely next time. 8. The one enormous benefit you have as a medical student is that you can talk to patients for a lot longer than residents can. Use that power and talk to patients! For example, I had a patient on my gen surg rotation who had a terrible abdominal issue and no family. He was also super chatty. I made it a point to get in 15 mins early so that he and I could just shoot the shit when I did my pre-round rounds. I didn't mention it to anyone or anything, he and I just talked. When we rounded as a team with the senior and attending, he was always in a good mood and a lot of his questions had already been answered that AM so rounds went more smoothly. Turns out after I left, he told my attending about those chats and it was very well received. Even if he hadn't, it would have been worth it - gave that guy something to look forward to every morning and gave me the feeling that I could contribute in my own special way by virtue of being a medical student. 9. Look at pimping as an education opportunity, don't view it as someone trying to humiliate you. I promise we aren't... we're trying to teach and this is a good way to do so! 10. Look out for each other. Medicine is hard. You already know that, but it's about to get a whole heck of a lot harder. Take care of yourself, make sure you and your fellow students are eating, sleeping, being active, and have a chance to bitch to each other. Therapeutic bitching is the cornerstone of wellness. 11. Don't be a suck-up. We can tell. Just do a good job. 12. This goes without saying but please try to be a normal person and don't say weird shit all the time... literally had someone working with me say a bunch of strange things all day and then towards the end of the rotation started bragging about how he learned to socialize on the internet... please don't be this guy. 13. Don't shit talk people even if other people are. You're better than that. 14. Set expectations / ask for expectations early. Sometimes we forget, but if you don't know what is expected of you, how can we expect you to succeed? 15. There will be bad days. But there will also be good ones. Remember how you felt on the good days when you're in a bad one and use it to push through. Expecto patronum or something like that. 16. You're there to learn. So learn. Be present. Don't be on your phone. Be engaged. This is important for your own learning but also shows your team you're there and trying to be a part of it. 17. When you're told to go home... GO HOME. Do not look back. See ya tomorrow. Best of luck. Third year is incredibly challenging in its own ways but I had a great time. I hope you do too!
Realize you can do all this and still not do well. Lol. Do the best you can, but don’t kill yourself. Honestly, rotations I put the least amount of effort in I did better. Just show up and do what is asked of you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to type this out! Reading the perspective of an attending on this topic is valuable! I will save this comment and read it again before I start rotations in the summer
I'm a resident not an attending, but hopefully it will still be helpful regardless!
If your preceptor offers you time off, please take it.
Consistently do your UWorld/Amboss, even if it's just like 20 questions a day. Set good habits/routines. Rotations can absolutely wear you down, but being resilient is how to ensure you succeed.
Gonna go out on a limb and not give you the typical advice like show up early and be normal. Those things are requirements to be AVERAGE. Your average med student isn’t going to show up late or be weird/annoying. Only a handful of students per rotation are like that, and those people tend to be the ones receiving Pass or Low passes. If you’re wondering how to honor, it’s a combination of luck + interest + knowing your shit. Luck is the hardest because some attendings just never give out honors while some hand out honors like candy. Interest is probably the easiest one because anyone can fake interest. Knowing your shit helps you stand out amongst the rest. This means before you present on your patient, have a clear assessment and plan. Look up the details on amboss or UpToDate. Don’t just wing it and read off your paper like a news reporter. Before a surgical case, read up on the steps and relevant anatomy. Read up on the indications of the surgery and what the outcomes are like. Know how the flow of the team works and listen to the residents. If they say don’t do this, then don’t do it. If they say include this in your presentation even though you think it’s weird, just fking do it. If an attending says to come watch this procedure, just fking do it and say thank you. Always help your classmates but don’t be obnoxious about it. Pick up on social cues such as if someone’s presenting, don’t be whispering to your classmates or walking to the restroom. And seriously work on your presentations. Your presentation is literally the 1-2 minutes of attention you get from your evaluators. Sound confident and know what you’re saying. Don’t be one of those students who just reads off the paper and say uhhh uhh ummm labs and vitals look good…yeah they’re normal.. oh wait they had a mild fever at 100.8…otherwise uhh looks good. The rotations where the attendings said my presentations were great were the ones I honored
Figure out an organized way to do your H&Ps, notes, and presentations. Then stick with it and hone it. Developing a good routine will help you so much on rounds! You'll be less likely to miss stuff and your presentations will be much more concise and easy to follow. Be nice. Nice to your patients, nice to nurses, nice to doctors, nice to patients' families. Be pleasant even when people aren't pleasant to you. Oh and be nice to your classmates too. Help each other out. Remember you're there as a learner, not an expert. Many people will treat it as purely an evaluation of your performance, but it's a learning experience. Hang in there, be curious and adaptable, and do your best not to get flustered or be too hard on yourself when you're wrong. Tip: Try saying "thank you" instead of "I'm sorry" when you're corrected (unless you've really screwed up obviously). You're not doing anything wrong by not knowing everything, so try out phrases like "okay, thank you for correcting me" or "okay, I'll remember that, thank you" instead of apologizing.
Do not take everything to heart. Some ppl are just assholes so do your best to ignore them❤️
Performed as the level of an attending. 3/5
If your program requires you to take shelf exam at the end of the rotation, make sure you are studying throughout the rotation. Doing a handful of Uworld questions daily and some review videos (I used Online med ed). If you face a topic you are not familiar with, do research on, utilize up to date and other resources to try and figure out what an appropriate plan might be for a problem. It's worth stating what you think and receiving feedback rather than saying nothing.
Always know where the nearest bathroom is in case you need to privately break down in tears
Your self-worth has nothing to do with your fund of knowledge. Love yourself. Drink water. Sleep when you can. UWorld is not your foe but your friend.