As I think I've mentioned before, I decided to take OB/gyn in 2 weeks blocks, since that's how it's split up for us (two weeks each of OB, gyn, and clinic). So, I'm now 1/3 of the way done, and it already seems to be going by quickly! Unfortunately, I have a feeling that I've finished the part that I'm going to like the most.
So far, although I dislike the area, the rotation has been pretty good. Some of the attending do a great job of teaching and really care about the students. I also may have just gotten lucky so far, but I've liked all of my residents to this point, and some of them will also teach a decent amount. This is definitely one of those places though that if you want to sit around and do nothing all day, you could get away with it, but if you ask, they'll let you do a lot and teach.
So far, I've seen a bunch of vaginal deliveries, and depending on the attending, they may let you catch the baby, suture up an episiomoty, or you may just watch. There are also plenty c-sections every day to scrub into, and the experience in there is also attending dependent. Typically, you'll just retract, suction, and cut suture, but a couple attendings have really done a good job explaining everything, pointing out relevant anatomy, and let me get my hand inside and feel around. One, who really loves to teach (and is good at it), even asked the resident to switch places with me and let me do most of the closing. Although I probably won't go into surgery at this point, it was very nice when he told me that if I didn't go into surgery, it would be a waste of talent!
Next is gyn, which is primarily surgery. Unfortunately, it's probably just going to be more retracting and suctioning. I'm really over the student role in surgery, and I wish they let us do more. I've heard that some places, there are few residents and the students actually get to first assist a lot. And, I love when I get to do that. Sometimes I worry that I'm not going into surgery because I just didn't have a good enough experience, in the student role, to really fall in love with surgery like I thought I would. But, if I really had gotten the chance to first assist once in a while and see what it's like to be a surgeon, I may have had different thoughts. Because, when the one attending let me switch with the resident, I really didn't want to leave the OR. But, I'm keeping an open mind, so we'll see how it goes in gyn.
The only thing I'm REALLY not looking forward to is clinic. Mostly because the patients are almost entirely Spanish, and almost none of them speak English! I do not have a problem with Spanish patients, and I'm all for diversity, but I do have a big problem with none of them speaking English! It kind of pisses me off that they live here for years, are getting basically free care in the clinic, and then they can't even learn the language to communicate. Fortunately for them, many of the residents are fluent in Spanish. Actually, I don't think any of the residents natively speak English. So, we'll see how that goes....at least it has the easiest hours.
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