Surgery is really what you make it. Not a lot of direction is given from attendings or residents so it’s really up to the students to figure things out for themselves. I recommend coming to an agreement with the members on your team (aka your fellow classmates) about how to break up the surgery schedule. At ECMC the pre-call team gets first pick of the surgeries for the day, on the on-call team has second choice, and the post-call team goes home. It’s a good idea to do as many surgeries as possible with the attending in charge of your team because he will ultimately be in charge of your grade. Do not expect to be taught how to do things. Be proactive and ask. Also be sure to ask the nurses for extra suture material to practice knot tying at home. The attendings will expect progress on simple skills like suturing and knot tying and you must practice on your own.
When in the ER be assertive and be helpful. Learn where the Foley kits, blankets, gauze, hemocult developer etc….. are so that you can get these things at a moments notice. Always volunteer to do the stuff know one wants to do like the rectal exam, (carry surgery lube in your pocket). Know where CT is and always go get contrast dye because almost everyone gets a CT scan.
Being on call with your team can be really fun, and there is often, at least at ECMC, a lot of down time. Bring books to study and quiz each other. Our team broke up the shelf topic lists and tried to go through a couple of topics on the list each time when we were on call. Since you don’t have a ton of time to study these sessions were invaluable and really helped prepare for the shelf.
In regards to the shelf, Case Files was the best book for a lot of people. Other useful books included First Aid for Surgery and the Kaplan notes on the S drive.
