Written by: McMaster Medical Student c2023, Hamilton Campus Where was your placement and what specialty was it in?
Southlake Hospital at Newmarket for my ObGyn Core [cc2, second core] How did you get to the placement? Unless you move to Newmarket you'd need a car to get to this location. I paid ~$80 for the monthly parking pass however they had another option that was ~$60 in a lot across the street. Since it was winter I opted for the closer lot. On the first day you can park in the visitor lot and get reimbursed for it. I got funding from MacCare for this site. Describe a typical day at your core. Handover is at 8am- the doc (and maybe student) who was on call over night would give updates about the patients and any new consults they saw. After this you introduce yourselves to any patients in labour and see if there are any triage patients or consults to help with. I usually also dropped by the early pregnancy loss clinic to let them know I was on shift that day so that they could call me for patients who came in. Sometimes the mornings were busy and other times there was a lot of downtime to study until the first patient came to the EPL clinic. There would usually be 3-4 patients in the clinic and this would usually take me to lunchtime. In the afternoon, I would spend my time in L & D, doing consults, seeing triage patients and occasionally in the OR. I did my core when there were OR shutdowns so I didn't have many dedicated OR days and only went for emergency cases. The day ends at 5pm if you are on a day shift. If you are on call, usually in the evening you can take time to study. The staff will let you know if there is anything they need help with. Calls were variable - I had shifts where I barely got an hour of sleep and others where I slept for more than 6 hours. On average you should be able to get 3-4 hours. In total, I had six 24 hour calls and eight day shifts. What level of responsibility did you have as a medical student? I had a lot of exposure to L & D, the staff were great at encouraging learners to get involved. Some would let me deliver the placenta while others got me more involved in tasks such as repairing the perineal tears. For triage patients and consults, you have the opportunity to assess the patient and come up with a plan to review with the staff. The staff were great teachers during this time. Whenever I went to the OR, I usually scrubbed in - mostly to see better but other times to help as well. Since my OR experience was limited I'm not too sure how students usually get involved here. What are some common things you saw? And do you have any resource suggestions? I would suggest reading about low risk deliveries and early pregnancy loss management. Consults are always varied but good topics to review include abnormal uterine bleeding and amenorrhea. Common triage patient presentations include decreased fetal movement, vaginal bleeding or potential labour. I found OnlineMedEd a great resource for ObGyn in general and thought it was helpful during my shifts as well. What was one thing you didn’t like about the core? There are a lot of call shifts - you can study during the low volume ones but it can still be tiring.
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Written by: McMaster Medical c2023 Student Where was your placement and what specialty was it in?
OB/GYN in Newmarket (cc2 core) How did you get there? I drove, parking was $90-ish for the month. Describe a typical day at your core. Show up at 8AM, get handover from the previous night's team. Do nothing until 10AM. At 10AM, the pregnancy loss clinic opens, so you see patients from there. Pregnancy loss clinic closes at 12pm, usually by this time there's someone in triage, emerge, or on a medicine floor to see. If any patients come in to deliver, medical students see all of them and talk to them as well. See all the patients and go up to bed by around 8pm. There are calls overnight for deliveries and emerge consults. What level of responsibility/exposure did you have as a medical student? Got to see pregnancy loss clinic patients and take triage histories independently (then review with preceptor.) Got to put in a few stitches during vaginal tears and C sections and gyne surgeries What are some common conditions you saw? And do you have any resource suggestions? I used the Amboss qbank and the provided modules on litmos, that was more than enough. Common conditions I saw were ectopic pregnancy, normal labour and delivery, TLH, and lots and lots of pregnancy loss (so definitely read up on the different types of spontaneous abortion!) What is your most memorable experience from this? Got to catch a baby myself bc my preceptor was struggling with his gloves. It was awesome. What was one thing you didn’t like? Too much call, no gyne exposure Do you have any recommendations for things to do/explore/eat in the local area? To be honest there's nothing to do in Richmond Hill/ Newmarket, especially during Covid. But if the David Dunlap Observatory ever opens up, they have a great view of the night sky and tours/ explanations of astronomy which is pretty awesome! What’s one piece of advice you have for students doing an elective here in the future? Sleep VERY well the night before a call, you'll need it Would you recommend this core to current students? Only if they're interested in doing obstetrics. It's especially great for students in FM who are planning on doing obstetrics bc it's all low risk and there's no time wasted on gyne Anything else you would like to add about the experience? too. much. call. |
Southlake Regional Hospital, background credit: parkin.ca
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