Dr Kgothatso Legong shares an insight into life as a medical student on clinical rotation.

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As a student preparing to undertake your clinical rotation you might have feelings of uneasiness, panic, or quite the opposite – excitement. A period in which a medical student in the clinical part of his/her education is required to rotate through different specialties or hospital settings to gain knowledge and experience.

If you would like your clinical experience to be a breeze, it is vital that you seek guidance from those who have already been through what you are about to do. This is how I was able to navigate my first rotation with the help of senior students.

On the first day, our consultant gave us an amazing introduction to Obstetrics. Our unit was post-call; therefore, a lot of our seniors were tired in contrast to us, fourth years, who were fresh and energised to be starting. Our consultant assigned beds for us and gave us instruction to always clerk and know about any patient who happens to be on that particular bed. 

Even though our consultant gave us tips on how to clerk and which format he prefers, we were all over the place. Mind you, this was our first ever time being in a clinical setting one-on-one with a patient with minimal supervision. For this reason, we sought help from fifth and sixth year MBCHB students. 

Our seniors were very willing and helpful. They gave us tips on how to approach patient. “Before you go through the file of a patient, you must great them and introduce yourself,’’ a fifth year said. He continued to say, “Once you do that, gain consent. For you to gain consent, you must state clearly what your intensions are.” This was very helpful, as this led me to establish good rapport with the patients I was working with. 

You will also notice patients are very trusting if you have the right approach.

Because learning is an active process that cannot be completed in one go and that online videos do little justice once you get a true, real patient in front of you, you will need a senior to help you consolidate the theoretical knowledge. 

I remember on one particular day a sixth year saw me examining my patient and he politely offered to help me as I was doing it wrong. I was performing the thyroid examination on the neck. Because I had very little knowledge on what I was doing, I just happen to be palpating the thyroid while standing in front on the patient. Without making me feel embarrassed, my senior showed me how it is properly done by standing at the back of the patient while she was seated down on the bed. The teaching and learning experience was so good that I ended up taking that patient and writing my case report with her.

Senior medical students offered us leadership and guidance whiles we needed it the most. The instilled a wealth of knowledge we knew nothing of before we met them. I was so inspired by their example that I am motivated to become like them to my juniors once they also rotate with us.