Suggestions needed
So,
I am the director of a medical student group for the promotion of interest in family medicine (not its real name, real name much more catchy). We are looking at things to do within our group next year to promote family medicine. Last year we covered the following topics in speaker presentations:
1 - residency
2 - family + obstetrics
3 - wilderness medicine
4 - rural medicine
and we had skills sessions covering:
1 - suturing
2 - immunizations and well baby checks
3 - mechanics of childbirth
4 - wilderness medicine
I really really need suggestions of fun/interesting topics in family medicine that we can add to our roster next year. PLEASE if any family docs or med students read my blog and have any suggestions at all PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE comment.
again, PLEASE.
6 comments:
Dear medstudentitis,
Good for you for promoting Family Medicine!
I'm a Board Certified (and re-certified twice) Family doc. What appealed me to me most from the beginning was the variety of patients a typical family doc sees in a day. I remember my FP rotation as a 3rd year student. It was in a rural clinic, and I was fascinated to go from a boy with a fractured arm in one room to an old lady with diabetes in the next, to a man with a boil in the next, and so on.
You ask for "fun or interesting" topics for your group. Some examples I can think of:
Gay and lesbian health issues
How to take a sexual history
Domestic violence
Sexual assault
Child abuse
ADHD
Knee exam
How to use a slit lamp
common splints e.g. volar wrist, posterior ankle
Tricks of the trade for examining kids
Pain meds - when/how to use them, when/with whom to avoid them
STD's (especially if you can see some trichomonads and/or lice under the microscope)
the dying patient
I'll keep thinking about it, and come back and add more as they come to me.
Good luck!
Have a health fair! Get community or university-affiliated docs to help the students with booths that offer cholesterol screening, glucose monitoring, diabetes-prevention education, lectures on nutrition/babyproofing the house/importance of exercise. Our school even offered a prostate screening booth (behind curtains, of course) where men could get a prostate exam and have a PSA drawn (not that a PSA is warranted for screening purposes). It's a great way to get students involved in real-life healthcare issues. If you spent this year planning, you could offer it at the beginning of the school year next year - good for parents who need to bring kids to your School Physicals Booth!
Show them the benefits of Preventive Medicine combined with Epidemiology.
Last year we hosted "Lunch with a Familiy Doc". In the student concouse area, we set up tables that seated 6 or 8 people and had a local family doc at each one. We provided free lunch to all interested students (they had to notify us before hand in order to prevent grab and runners) and they then sat at any of the tables and were able to ask family docs whatever they liked. They were free to move from table to table or stay with just one doc. I think most of the students really liked it and the docs seemed to as well.
We're planning to do it again this year. It's not fancy, but I think it was effective.
Oh yeah, the state Family Medicine assocation picked up the tab.
Dr Peg:
Thank you for all your great suggestions! I LOVE all of your interesting topics and will be taking them to my next meeting
FD: A health fair is a great idea! As I will be clerking next September I will try to get a keen first year to take on the task!
Dr. Mikel: Any ideas on how to make this fun? Our epidemiology and prevention lectures are anything BUT fun and have really discouraged student interest in these topics
Origin: I thought a mentorship program might be a bit too much work for this year but your idea seems like a great way to gear up to maybe doing a mentorship program next year. Nice one!
In terms of skills, a few sessions that our family medicine group have done which weren't mentioned are:
Casting
Intubation (on a dummy head of course!)
IV Starts (on each other, although your school may have insurance issues with this.)
I've also gone to sessions on Emergency Medicine, and lots on Rural Family Medicine. I'm not sure what province you are in, but in Alberta, we have an organization called RPAP (Rural Physician Action Plan), which sponsors us to bring a group of 30 students out to a rural hospital and do skills days like this. Perhaps your province has a similar program?
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