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VCOM Students

Kaivon Kouhestani: Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Roanoke

If you could write a “letter” to your second-year self about rotations, what would you say? 

If I could write a letter to my past self, it would be to go easy on yourself, as you are learning how to become a physician and its nuances. Many things you learned in your pre-clinical years will help you get some of those pimping questions correct from your resident or attending, but not everything is taught in the textbook. 

Clinical rotations are character-building and help sharpen the clinical skills that will be needed for patient care. Embrace being wrong because you will be most of the time, and that is OK! That is how you learn. You may feel guilty and degrade yourself for not getting the information correct or messing up in front of your preceptor, but those emotions are only temporary and do not define who you will become. You have to move on from the "bad days" because the "good days" will come (sometimes when you least expect it!) and they will feel much more victorious because you were strong at the moment and did not give up. 

Additionally, rotations are really what you make of it. If you have a positive attitude and show your excitement to learn regardless of your predetermined specialty, then you will have more impactful experiences and learning opportunities.

 

What stands out about your third-year rotations?

My rotation site is at an academic institution that serves as a level 1 trauma center, so there are a ton of people running around in the hospital hallways. 

What is unique about my rotation experience is the ability to work and become part of a big team. Working with residents is probably one of the highlights of my experience because they all enjoy teaching. The residents were in my situation not too long ago and can remember how daunting it feels to be practicing real medicine. They help alleviate any hesitancies you may have and sometimes get to teach 1-on-1. You get actual responsibility that takes part in real care for the patient. Everything beforehand used to be textbook and hypothetical scenarios. Now, you get to put the standards of care we all learned to the test and adapt to the patient's unique variabilities.

 

What is a "typical" day like for you?

A typical day for me includes waking up early to get to the hospital to "pre-round" on my assigned patients. Then I would attend the morning report, which is a resident-based lecture. After our learning, I would meet with the team to "round" as a group on all of the patients for the next few hours and write our daily notes. 
 

The afternoons would include any check-ups on the patients or following through with other communications from different aspects of the medical team. Occasionally, I would have additional afternoon lectures, or I would meet with the team again to give updates. After the full day, I would go home to decompress for one to two hours, and then research/review any topics that were discussed earlier in the day or were pertinent to my patient's treatment plan.
 

How has the rotation experience helped solidify what you want to practice? 

I always wanted to pursue a surgical residency before med school started, and my surgery rotation solidified it. I was very proactive with the surgery team about my interests in surgery. They were very receptive to this, and I got to do a ton! 

Most surgeries I participated in used laparoscopic instruments; therefore, I was allowed to drive the camera and help the surgeon see his operative field. I was allowed to suture any incision sites, exchange instruments if working with the DaVinci robot, and do my own surgical evaluation on patient consults. It proved to me that I enjoy working with a team and look forward to being a leader in the OR. Overall, my experience was very in-depth and involved.

 

What do you want people to know about what rotations are, how they work and why they are important?

Clinical rotations are essentially where medical students work under the supervision of licensed physicians at a medical facility for learning purposes. Medical students are allowed to take part in patient care and help drive the treatment plan. This is important because it allows us to practice our clinical thinking skills and play with the nuances of becoming a physician in the upcoming years. It also exposes us to different specialties and helps us learn what piques our interest. The amount of clinical rotations and the length of each rotation varies per institution, however, there are standard sets of experiences that are required for all medical students in the country.