The Nerd's Guide to Pre-Rounding: A Medical Student's Manual to the Wards

by Richard A. Loftus

• ISBN13: 9780521676755
• ISBN10: 0521676754
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-12
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is a how-to guide for medical students moving from the classroom to the clinical/hospital setting; a particularly stressful transition in a student-physician's career. This handbook is made up of short, easily digestible passages that advise students on everything from reading an EKG or chest x-ray to tips on dealing with difficult residents and what to wear on wards. Passages are peppered with light-hearted anecdotes to bolster the spirits of students intimidated and overwhelmed by their responsibility as fledgling doctors. The handbook has been developed by Dr Richard Loftus, who wrote the first version of this guide after his 3rd year at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). It contains appendices of useful information, including a PDF file of full size forms that can be accessed from our website.

Author Biography

Richard A. Loftus, M.D., is an internist trained at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Table of Contents

1. Warning: career ahead

2. The job of the medical student

3. Job performance: the big ten

4. Gear down: white coats, stethoscopes, and other fashion accessories

5. Pre-rounding and scut basics

6. Knowledge management: if I only had a brain ...

7. Pimping and the art of self-defense

8. Presentations: 'Here there Be Dragons'

9. Making the grade: emotional intelligence trumps all

10. Team management for the MS3

11. Morale management

12. Soapbox - physicians and the snare of egoism

Acknowledgements

Appendix 1: Tasty bits - good things to know up front

Appendix 2: Dispo dancing

Appendix 3: Patient data collection card templates

Appendix 4: Daily progress note template

Appendix 5: The (don't) panic pages: for the Sub-I

Appendix 6: Eliciting the code status: a very important job that we doctors do very badly

Appendix 7: Personal finance for the medical trainee

Appendix 8: Using pubmed.