A Guide for 4th Year Medical Students Rotating Through CC Trauma: A Thrilling Journey

 It was one month ago that I completed a four-week elective rotation at Cook County Trauma, and it was four weeks that I will never forget.  When I stepped inside the trauma unit for the first time, my first elective as a 4^th year medical student, I had experienced many feelings:  excitement, nervousness, fear.  While on-call for the first time later that evening, all those emotions and anxiety vanished. A patient arrived who suffered a GSW to the chest.  He was hemodynamically unstable, and suffered asystole. I was in the back observing, when the chief resident yelled at me to start performing CPR.  I began performing chest compressions, while the chief resident and attending prepped to do an open thoracotomy.  Wow, I was really helping save this person’s life, something I had never done before.   It was amazing to see firsthand the integral role that communication plays in the care of a trauma patient.   The night went on with more BATs, BHTs, and SWs (all acronyms that I learned very quickly, after the first morning report).   It was an amazing educational beginning to a very busy month.

The day in the unit always began with morning report and progressed to rounding.  The team consisted of attending physicians, fellows, chief residents, residents, interns, and students.  Everyone played a part, even the students who were sometimes reluctant to pick up patients during rounds.  Once rounding finished, there were different agendas, depending on the day.  Monday’s agenda was M&M (morbidity and mortality), Wednesday afternoon was clinic, and Thursdays, OR procedures were scheduled.  In addition, students attended short presentations on different topics throughout the week.  Being on-call is where most of the action occurs.  The medical students’ primary responsibility is to write the H&P, while the rest of the team conducts the primary and secondary surveys.  Once the patient is stabilized, the student transports the patient to radiology for imaging.  If minor procedures need to be done on patients (i.e. suturing, ABG draws, I&Ds), the chief resident and residents are very receptive and willing to give the student autonomy to execute the procedures. 

Cook County Trauma gives the medical students a vast amount of knowledge and hands-on experiences that will have long-term impact and countless benefits in the future. I hope you will enjoy this rotation as much as I did. The best part for me was I became more comfortable and confident when presenting a patient to a group of my colleagues.  Let me tell you, that is a great feeling!

Tips for Incoming rotating medical students:

•               The residents and fellows are always interested in teaching, whether it is imaging or pathophysio; so don’t be hesitant, ask away!
•        The more visible you are while on-call, the more procedures you will get to participate in.
•    i.e. get to know the residents and chiefs well, they’ll allow you to do some interesting procedures
•        Be part of the team.  Don't try to stand in the background and be a shadow on the wall.
•       When presenting on morning rounds, be confident about your assessment and plan.  Do not be afraid to say something that no one has mentioned; you might convince the attending to go along with it.
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• The four weeks of the rotation go by incredibly fast. Enjoy it, learn as much as you can, and have fun!

from David Shanberg, M4