Surgery...for Women | My Obstetrics and Gynecology Rotation

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It's the start of a brand new decade, and my medical school calendar begins with the joys of Ob/Gyn. The upside? I'll help bring new life into the world during the labor and delivery block of this rotation. The downside? I'd say roughly 70% of female patients are more comfortable being seen by a female provider, and that leaves Y chromosome-carrying med students like myself in a bit of a bind when it comes to learning the practical skills needed to effectively provide women's health care. In some ways, I think it's understandable that patient's preferences be accommodated, but from what I've seen so far, the field of Ob/Gyn is headed for an extreme imbalance in terms female to male ratio of providers. It is what it is I suppose...

I've been pleasantly surprised by the schedule for this rotation. We've got lectures every morning for example, and they've been really interesting so far. Also instead of random night shifts for call duty, they've been kind enough to schedule "night float" where I'll be able to flip my sleep schedule and work nights for a few days in a row. All very manageable. My schedule breaks down roughly into 3 weeks of clinic, and roughly one week of gynecologic surgery, labor and delivery, and night float.

Women's Health Clinic

Every day starts with 8am lectures. Clinic begins at 9am and ends when the last patient is seen (usually around 4-5pm but sometimes as late as 6pm). Students complete all necessary forms for patients, then present to PA, resident or attending. We discuss care/plan with the patient after presenting. If a pelvic exam is required, an attending and a chaperone are called.

Gynecologic Surgery

This is the point where the rotations starts to feel alot like surgery all over again. Days start at 5:30am with pre-rounding on patients. By 6:30 rounds with the attending begin and students are expected to present said patients and have completed daily progress notes for each one. Surgical cases start at 7:30am, and students skip lectures if scrubbed in on a case, otherwise, lectures are every day at 8am. The afternoons are spent doing surgical cases or scut work until the residents send us home.

Night Float + Labor and Delivery

 I was pleasantly surprised by the schedule for nights. It's much easier to flip over my sleep schedule to rest during the days and work at night for a few days in a row than to have nights every 3 or 4 days. For this rotation, I'll have a total of 5 nights. Not bad

By far, Labor and Delivery is what I look forward to most. I've already been lucky enough to observe a couple live births during my Pediatrics rotation, but this time I'll be scrubbed in and hopefully doing the actual baby catching. I'll spend 5 days helping to bring new life into the world. Should be fun!

Final Thoughts

Before I began this rotation, I'd heard widely varying accounts from other students about their experiences during Ob/Gyn. I think the reason for that boils down to how well different students can handle the patient population, and work with the residents, PA's, attendings etc. So far, my experience has been pretty pleasant, but I'll be updating this post with my thoughts as the rotation goes on.

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Best!

Dynamo