The Ob/Gyn clerkship can be grueling in terms of hours, similar to the surgery clerkship. But, at the end of the day, you help bring babies into the world! Thankfully for Ob/Gyn, the information is finite and not too difficult to learn. I felt like the shelf examination was one of the more reasonable ones.
Typical Schedule
I did my rotation at a smaller community hospital, so my experience was a little different. The rotation is usually 6 weeks long. In general, the day starts at 6am with signout. You hear about the laboring moms and those recovering on the postpartum ward. If you are on the GYN service, you scrub into the GYN cases and you may see outpatients. If you are on the OB service, you deliver all day. There is generally a week of nights where you have even more opportunities to catch babies and scrub into emergent cases.
My experience had more of an outpatient focus. We attended sign out every morning at the hospital and assisted in deliveries that morning if there were any. If there were no imminent deliveries or Cesareans scheduled, we would go to outpatient clinic 3 days per week. The 4th day was for surgeries (both GYN and Cesareans) and Fridays were largely teaching days.
I loved outpatient and worked one on one with an incredible attending, so it was a really wonderful experience. The attending was older and knew every single one of his patients. He would ask about their families, careers, and vacations. So many of these women would cry about how this amazing physician had helped them conceive, saved their babies during a traumatic delivery, cured their painful periods and bleeding problems, or helped them through a difficult time. He embodied all the qualities of a perfect physician in my opinion, treating the whole person, not just the disease with compassion, grace, and empathy.
Your Expectations
As with any rotation, you should ask your expectations day 1. Show up on time. Be respectful. Be helpful. Stay positive. You should expect to scrub into all cases and help where you can. Introduce yourself to the scrub nurse and scrub tech. Write your name on the board so it can be documented. Don’t break the sterile field. If you have a question, ask it. Remember to be sensitive. These women may be scared of surgery, nervous about their baby’s health, and uncomfortable about being exposed. In the outpatient world, make sure you or your attending ask if it is okay for you to be present during the history and examination and if it is okay for you to do any parts of the exam. Always have a chaperone if you are going to do a gyn exam.
What You Need
Stethoscope – I have this stethoscope (Littmann Cardiology IV) in burgundy and love it. This is the most popular stethoscope among medical students.
Medical Clipboard – I absolutely love this clipboard. It is perfect for keeping notes and taking histories, and it’s HIPAA compliant. Plus, it has lots of essential facts. Even better, it folds right up and fits in your white coat! (Make sure you buy the medical version, not the nursing version).
These two reflex hammers are very popular and easy to get reflexes on. I have the circular telescoping one, but the hammer one is also great! I was terrible at getting reflexes on the cheaper reflex hammers, and now it’s a breeze using these hammers.
Pen Light – so important and I love the rose gold!
How to Study for the Ob/Gyn Clerkship
This shelf felt friendlier than some of the others, and it felt easier to master the material. OnlineMedEd and UWorld were very helpful on this rotation. Always take an NBME practice test if you can. Our school gave us one free voucher for every clerkship (they cost $20). They tended to be pretty accurate in terms of predicting scores and some of the questions were very similar to the actual shelf. I did all the UWorld questions, did all the OnlineMedEd, used the Blueprints book, and did some of Case Files. Plus, I annotated UWorld into Master the Boards.
Resources
In addition to UWorld and OnlineMedEd, there are multiple other resources that are helpful on this rotation.
Kaplan Master the Boards – For all your rotations, you should annotate the UWorld explanations into a central text. For Step 2CK, I preferred Kaplan’s Master the Boards to First Aid for Step 2 CK.
Case Files Ob/Gyn – This book is great for down time between cases or patients and for preparing for the OSCE.
Pre-Test Ob/Gyn – If you study well from questions, this is another good resource. There are not a ton of Ob/Gyn questions on UWorld, so this may be helpful if you want more practice problems.
Blueprints Ob/Gyn – Someone gave this to me, and I really liked it. The chapters were short, easy to follow, and full of high yield information.
How did you study for your Ob/Gyn clerkship?
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