How to study for… (Clerkship edition):
*please note many of the following resources include hyperlinks*
How to succeed on…:
  • Internal Medicine
    • Know everything there is to know about your patient. Do a complete chart review. Don’t leave the patient's room with any questions about their condition/presentation. You might not know everything about the medicine, but you can know a lot about your patient. 
    • Read research articles about your patients' conditions. At Beaumont/Corewell when you work Dr. Zimmerman, you will have to have a paper backing up your diagnosis and management for every patient! Good practice for when you’re an attending and you have to keep up on literature!
    • If you forgot to ask a question, don’t forget to go back to your patient and ask them!
    • Work on developing your Assessment and Plan
  • Family Medicine
    • Be kind and courteous to all clinical staff
  • Neurology
    • Become proficient at the neuro physical exam
  • Psychiatry
    • Make sure you know the timelines for diagnosis of the different common psych disorders and the first line treatments for them
    • Review pertinent Neurology differentials
  • Surgery
    • Know your stitches and knots (instructional videos linked below):
    • Carry resources that residents need for dressing changes. Even if you know nothing about what’s going on, can be proactive on rounds. Many teams will have a bag/bucket of these supplies that they will show you on your first day so you don’t even have to know what the supplies are, just remember to bring the bag with you on rounds.
    • The best way to succeed is to make the residents’ lives easier
    • If you could easily Google your question, it may not be the best one to ask
    • Don’t ask for the sake of asking - it’s okay to be quiet
  • Obstetrics & Gynecology
    • See stitches and knots videos under “Surgery” (especially “running subcuticular”)
    • Know the cardinal movements of labor and ask for hand-over-had experience in deliveries!
    • Attach yourself to your resident and make sure to follow them whenever they go somewhere, particularly on L&D, where they won’t always have time to tell you to follow them. If you aren’t proactive about moving when they move then you’ll just find yourself sitting around and feeling lost and confused. Appear interested!
  • Pediatrics
    • Just be willing to learn and don’t be afraid to do anything!

General tips:
  • Be honest. I’ve found that being honest about my specialty of interest has been a good choice. It means that the residents will find a way for you to see patients most relevant to your interests and you will enjoy the experience more. That being said, don’t close yourself off to any speciality before you’ve experienced it. Even if you are 100% certain that you are going into a specific specialty, enter each rotation with an open mind and try to learn as much as you can from it.
  • Do or read something every day. Even if it’s just 5 UWorlds or an article for a patient or a few anki cards. Small steps lead to big changes over time. 
  • You are not going to be perfect or have all of the answers or do the right thing all of the time. Control what you can control. Show interest and that you care about your patients, it means more than knowing all of the answers. 

Career mentoring:
  • How to become involved with research
  • Connect with docs in the field you are interested in. Never hurts to reach out!
  • Connect with upperclassmen via Aesculapians mentorship program or interest groups

Recommended Apps
  • MDcalc
  • Up to date (free with WSUSOM)
  • Epocrates
  • AHA/ACC On the go (guidelines)
  • USPSTF