Clinical Experience

So I started clinicals this week and was wondering: on day one, does your preceptor let you jump right in and start seeing patients on your own, try to dx them and come up with a treatment plan? or....do you just observe for the first day or 2? Im asking because, I've been there 2 days in a pedi clinic, and have not gotten an opportunity to actually perform an exam on a patient. Either because the child is already fussy and would barely allow my preceptor, who is obviously experienced, to do one or, the parent/child did not want a student in the exam room. This is only my first week, but I am slightly concerned that I may not get the most out of this experience because of those reasons previously mentioned.

I guess I'm just trying to gain insight on everyone's clinical experiences!! Thanks for your input!

For me it largely depends on where the student is in their training. If this is their first rotation I would expect them to watch for a day then start to see some patients. You should definitely sit down with the preceptor and talk things about how things are going to work operationally before you start. When I worked in an office based practice, I would poke my head in, introduce myself and "ask" if it was OK if the student came in and saw them before I came in. Since these were mostly patients who I had a long term relationship with it was almost always OK. Its all in how you phrase the question. Usually I would go and see another patient while the student was in their and then have the patient present the patient and go see them. I would point out any interesting exam findings etc.

When I did my FP or peds rotation I would see one of four patients and work my way up to ever other one and in FP on the final day I saw all of them prior to the PA. This was the progression that was expected. Where I am now in the ICU I usually orient the student the first day and then have them watch whats going on. I have them pick out one patient that will be "theirs" for a while. They are expected to write the note and present the patient to the attending. When they do well with one patient I have them pick up another and so on. I also like to have them do an admit to see what its like. All of this under the weather eye of the RNs and myself. If they are further into training I would expect them to get more patients quicker.

Basically your program should have some goals for the rotation. Discuss this with your preceptor. Open communication is the key to a good rotation.