I do || OBGYN Rotation
And that’s a wrap! My rotations are done for 2022! Two more rotations and I’ll be in my 4th year! Woo! I think if you have a choice, a May Clinical Rotation start seems to be the most easy-going. I’m lucky to have a 2-week break scheduled in, but I know some people don’t get any. If you told Term 5 Rainee last year that she would be happy in clinical rotations - I don’t know if she’d believe you. Or believed that it does in fact get much, much, much better.
I’m a wife!
Wow. I’ve been with Mr. Warmly for 6 years now. He sure didn’t know what I meant when I said I was pre-med when we met. He discovered with me all the hardships of trying to get into med school, going to an international program, and now the chaotic energy of clinicals. We had a small courthouse ceremony with our parents and my siblings.
I’m excited to do a bigger wedding next year, but this was just right. My attending had no problem with me taking the day off to go to the courthouse. The staff was happy to wish me well. It speaks volumes to the existence of programs out there that support the human in you and encourages you to live your life.
I didn’t end up changing my last name since in my husband’s culture, most women don’t. Definitely wasn’t going to add to my 10-letter last name either. Maybe in the future I’ll change my mind, but it didn’t seem worth all the paperwork.
New Mexico & Arizona
We went on a week-long road trip to see the national parks in Nex Mexico and Arizona. Well because the only way to get to warmer weather seemed to be a lateral change.
My family and I have yearly re-caps of our year. This year my presentation was this video. Hope it’s fun to watch (: Of course, all of the stress and tears of school were edited out for dignity reasons.
My OBGYN Rotation
I knew I was never going to be an OBGYN. I heard the rumors. And the whole topic just scares me. I mean I’ve had menses for years and I’ve never had the golden 28-day cycle, it perplexes me.
Well OB is a shorter rotation, only 6 weeks! Surprisingly to me, I loved most of my rotation. In IM, the attendings didn’t really expect me to know anything. In Surgery, they definitely didn’t expect me to know surgery. It was a cool change of pace when the attendings counted on the medical students. When they believe in you and what you’re capable of learning.
I was lucky enough to work with a urogynecologist specializing in pelvic pain, incontinence, and prolapse. He encouraged me in the rotation to interview patients, do some of the physical exams, supervised procedures, and start conversations educating patients.
In some of my rotations, I felt redundant. In this one, I felt like I could actually help out. Being there for women who came to get their care meant something. They took off work, they’re paying out of pocket, they want answers, and they want someone to listen to them.
Under supervision, of course, I even got to do some more hands-on work like physical exams, pap smears, and pessary maintenance.
An average rotation day
My rotation involved a lot of clinic days. Most of my days were 8AM-5PM. Surgery days started at 7:30AM. When I was on OB service, I would usually round with the resident around 7AM before going to the OB.
So our first patients were usually around 8-8:30 AM. I would try to get there 15-30 minutes early to prechart. I’d briefly look into each appointment. On one piece of paper, I’d have their appointment time, the reason for visit, G’s and P’s, and age. Then I’d note what happened last visit, what follow-up questions I have, and leave space for the plan.
When under the Nurse Practioner, she let me see all the patients and report to her my plan. She let me learn how to do pap smears, swabs, and take out IUDs. I felt like a real clinician, like hey I could really do this.
SGU requirements
There’s so many. But you know what, I got to work with students from other Caribbean schools and there might be worse out there.
Weekly Requirements
Firecracker
SGU requires you to sign-up for this website. It attempts to pace out the topics you need to learn. You’re supposed to mark 10 topics a day and review topics through their flashcards and questions. Participation counts towards professionalism. I definitely will never be able to follow this. It is required to fo 10-20 questions a day.
Quizzes: The quizzes are done online through Firecracker. They are released on Fridays and are due on Mondays. They are usually 20-25 questions.
Patient Encounter Log (PEL): You can find this google form-esque log on the SGU clinical site. Before the end of the rotation, you need to submit all 23 required encounters. It’s optional to submit a SOAP note in the comment, but the school mentions you can print this log and show it to your preceptor for the final rotation evaluation. My advice, submit a couple of encounters every week so it’s not a rush at the end but I still did it all at the end.
Observed Encounter: You can print the rubric from the Surgery Sakai site. Multiple residents/attendings can sign off competencies. My advice, it all depends on who you ask. Play smarter, not harder.
2Case write-ups? I can’t say I know if I’m even doing it right. I still haven’t gotten my grades from my last two rotations
2 Communication Modules
Ethics Quiz
Favs For My OBGYN Rotation
Absolutely none of this is completely necessary, but may be helpful!
OBGYN Shelf Exam
Signing Up
Since the rotation is shorter, I was emailed my voucher about 2 weeks in from the SGU administration. Like all other NBMEs, I used the prometric website to sign-up. My closest site with availabilities was about 40 minutes away. My attending had a rule where all medical students got 1.5 days off before their exam and the day of their exam off.
Grading
The grading for the OBGYN shelf at SGU as of December 2022 deems a pass as anything above the 65 percentile. If I were to fail, I would have to take 4 weeks off at the end of 3rd year to retake the exam before proceeding to 4th-year rotations.
How I studied For The OBGYN Shelf Exam
See, I always start the rotation with a study schedule. You can never really predict how the site will schedule you and how you’ll feel doing it. Sure, I can force myself to listen to OnlineMedEd on the way home but am I talking to myself while it’s going? I sure am.
What I actually used to study
Inputs: Sketchy (actually pretty dang good) > Onlinemeded
Qbanks: Uworld > Amboss + NBME
Anki
Anking Step 2 deck: I made a filtered deck for the topics I got incorrect on questions and at the end I was desperate and made a filtered cram deck. The cards were actually really good. The Speed Focus Add-on saved my behind for sure!
Sketchy OBGYN Anki Deck: I made this as a rush gig for someone else. So it’s not Zanki quality, but it’s got all the Sketchy OBGYN.
For cumulative review, I loved these video series:
I watched or listened to them in my car starting about a month away from my Shelf Exam.
Sakala Slides
Divine Intervention: I watched this half-way through and it kind of stuck. I watched it the day before the shelf and it made way more sense. It definitely saved me at least 3 questions!
No Emma Holiday for this one :(
Honorable mentions
Case Files OBGYN: Extra practice!
OBGYN Notes from an amazing Redditor, sadly I couldn’t find the post where they replied with their notes. Amazing work though!
If you have a long commute like me, listen to:
Qbanks:
Uworld: 524 questions
Amboss: 500 questions for OBGYN
Times are tough! There is an Amboss Scholarship Program you can apply for. At the very least, they usually give you 1-2 weeks free if they don’t give you a scholarship.
Uwise: $69 for 1 month subscription or perhaps you could find it on Quizlet somewhere
4 NBME practice tests are available for purchase. In November 2022, they are $20 per test. I took the first one as the mid-core exam. The rest I started taking these about 3-4 weeks before my exam.
The OBGYN Shelf Exam
It was what I expected in that I knew most things, but there were a couple of surprises. I still think that IM was more difficult in content, but I can see how Surgery can be hard if you’re limited on time.
Lessons from my attendings, residents, & patients
Over my 12 weeks, I’ve gotten a lot of advice. Here are the ones that stood out to me.
About OBGYN & Healthcare
Insurance can help so many people, but I had many conversations with patients breaking the news that we can’t do this procedure or that lab because of insurance. It broke my heart to have those conversations.
Fix your constipation. Seriously, on surgery constipation caused like all the diverticulosis and hemorrhoids and now constipation is a risk factor for prolapse? No thanks.
Warmly, Rainee
Happy new year everyone! Can’t wait to tell you about my psych rotation and my new clinical site next time (: