Once you hit third year, you find yourself on rotations with a smaller group of your peers. You realize that the people you enjoyed in PBL are the same people you want to be with on the wards. Your colleagues on a rotation can make or break the rotation. The best rotations are when the third years help prep one another for their patients and keep an eye and ear out for each other through the day. The pressure becomes more real because you’re no longer working in a hypothetical world. These are real patients with real questions.
I think the patients expect more out of you than the doctors do. You tell patients that you’re a medical student but they look at you like you’re already a doctor. People expect a lot of you when you’re in the white coat.
One day I was with a friend downtown in Market Square. I had just bought a new stethoscope for my cardiology class. This was before I started clinical rotations. My friend asked to see the stethoscope, and as soon as I pulled it out someone yelled, “Thank god, you’re a doctor.” A guy had gone into a seizure, so we went over and helped as much as we could before the medics arrived. It’s hard to explain to people where a medical student stands in the hierarchy of things, so it motivates you to know as much as possible. That’s especially true if you have a good relationship with a patient. They could have an attending or primary physician, but often they’ll come to you with their questions because you’re available and they feel comfortable around you.
