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4
Primary Care Otolaryngology
chapter 1
Introduction to
Clinical Rotation
The goals of this book are to make good clinicians out of medical students
and to teach the basics of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.
Sometimes individuals have trouble transitioning from being second-year
medical students, where they are truly students, to becoming healthcare
professionals. This metamorphosis over the third and fourth years of med-
ical school involves learning how to carry yourself and act as a healthcare
professional.
To meet this first goal and become a good clinician, it is helpful for stu-
dents to be carefully observant of their professors in important but unno-
ticed aspects, such as their demeanor, comments, and interaction with
house staff and patients. Students learn a lot through observing care of
patients. The process starts with the student’s appearance (clothing and
grooming), punctuality, composure, acceptance of responsibility, and
interactions with patients and other healthcare team members. You need
to really listen to patients.
It can be difficult to understand a medical student’s role in the healthcare
team. Work to become an active member of the team. Interns, residents,
and attendings are overworked and spread quite thin. However, medical
students frequently have extra time to spend with their patients, talking to
the patients about their past medical problems, family, and social history
as they pertain to their disease process. Most important, work toward
establishing a true patient-physician relationship. This type of relationship
establishes the medical student as an important part of the healthcare
team, beneficial to the overall care provided to the patient. For the medical
student, it also establishes long-term behaviors that translate into the
development of an excellent future physician.
A few basic rules will help you to become a good clinician. During the
third year, there may be conflicting responsibilities, such as being at a lec-
ture while needing to draw a patient’s blood. In general, the priority