Clinical Entry 2006 Update, June 2006

We just had our annual Clinical Entry orientation for students about to start their MS3 year. Bert Tseng and Kwan Ng, newly minted PhDs, went with me to UCIMC (6/8/06) and the Long Beach VAMC (6/9/06) to get a preview of how they will be spending the next 2 years of their lives.

At UCIMC, we first met with Phil Wong (incoming Chief Resident, Internal Medicine), who gave us a comprehensive review of life on the wards, complete with a very helpful handout that he had prepared just for us. Bert and Kwan quickly realized it would be good to look back at that Review of Systems list they have somewhere, and to re-read that EKG book.

This year we added Chief Residents from other specialties. We met with Christine Gerges, incoming Chief Resident for Family Medicine, who gave us a nice view of what medical students can expect in the outpatient clinics. Language skills are helpful too, so brush up on your medical Spanish. We also met with Esther Friedrich, Chief Resident of Ob-Gyn, who talked about the role of medical students in the OR and on dealing with surgical patients. Esther had some helpful tips about what a medical student can do to look good.

The next day, we went to the Long Beach VA, and met with Ted Sy, incoming Chief Resident, Internal Medicine. If you haven't guessed from the name already, Ted is the brother of Mike Sy, one of our own MSTP students. Mike showed us the VA computer system, which is fancy enough that you can get medical records for a patient from our VA hospitals.

Bert and Kwan, together with the other MSTP students about to become MS3s (Allyson Howard, Dhavan Parikh and Sindy Wei) will be meeting with Karen Matsukuma (MS3 soon to be MS4) to get the valuable student's perspective. They'll also be putting together a time-line of deadlines and things to do during the transition period for MSTP students starting their MS3 year.

Congrats to all our new PhDs as they being their clinical training.

Ming Tan, Clincal Advisor