Today I spent half the day at the Doubletree Hotel in Center City Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians held a "Clinical Camp." It was a time for medical students to network with Family Residency programs from all over Pennsylvania while learning some skills that will help us in our future as physicians. I decided to go this year since I figured that the skills may help me as I begin my clinical years in less than two months. What exactly did I learn. Well, the day started at 8 AM (but I showed up closer to 8:40) with a lecture on "The Match" -- the complicated process of medical students choosing a residency program and residency programs choosing their students. They had some nice handouts called Strolling Through the Match which can be viewed on the AAFP website. I think this will come in handy as I still haven't firmly decided on what residency programs I will apply to. Following the lecture were the hands on workshops. I got to learn the following skills:
- Breastfeeding
- Casting and Splinting
- Joint Injections
- Wilderness Medicine
- Breast cyst aspiration
- How to deliver a baby with a towel, a shoelace, and a dull pocket knife
- Perineal Laceration & Episiotomy repair (involved suturing!!)
The conference closed with a student panel discussion on the virtues of Family Practice. Overall, it was a good way to spend a very rainy Saturday. Granted, I wouldn't want to spend EVERY Saturday that way. I was dog tired when I got home though, because I had worked at Ruby Tuesday the night before and I didn't get home until after 1 AM. Lately I've been wondering... Exactly how small is Philadelphia?? Stay tuned for my next post. In the meantime I will be studying hard for finals which start next week.
1 comment:
Hmm, that's some interesting hands-on experience... I don't even want to know how to deliver a baby that way... ::shudder::
Sara
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