Please be prompt for morning rounds on the service. One of the senior residents will let you know what time your service begins.
Attire: Professional attire is suggested. Any time you attend a conference, you are encouraged to choose something other than scrubs when you are able.
Morning round format: You will be expected to have pre-rounded on your patients, write a progress note, and know the following:
- PID #, POD #, age, injuries, antibiotics, Tmax, Tnow, BP, HR, RR, Input (broken down into IV, PO), output (broken down into urine, drain output, emesis, stool), any abnormal exam findings, condition of wounds, recent cultures or lab data, and overall assessment. Your patient load will be 4-5 patients.
- Please listen to your colleagues as they are presenting.
- Ask questions! We will ask you questions to discover what you do and do not know. This a fundamental teaching method and is not meant to be "malignant."
When pre-rounding on a patient: a) Look at the order section of the chart to see what has been done since you left; b) look at the progress note section for consultants' notes or event notes and report these during rounds; c) examine the patient's bedside chart; d) see and examine the patient.
Try to formulate a plan on each of your patients. This requires some thought and will help you understand the overall care goals of the patient better.
When rounds are concluded, perform the necessary tasks on your patients. Have one of the residents cosign your orders.
All patients' labs, culture results, and pathology results should be checked by 11:30 a.m. every morning. Please inform one of the residents of any abnormalities. If you notice an abnormal lab result before that time, please inform a resident.
Afternoon rounds will be scheduled by the senior resident. You should have all lab results, culture results, and procedure results at that time.
You are responsible for being at all of your lectures on time. Please inform one of the residents if you have a lecture that day.
These are your patients. Work hard, examine them, ask questions, and read about their problems. Your goal is to know the patient better than anyone else, including the attending physician.
The nurses, therapists, technicians, and other support staff are very competent and you can learn much from them. Treat them with respect and they will help you immensely. Listen to what they have to say; they often know the patients as well as anyone.
Please report any personal problems or conflicts to one of the senior residents. We can be reached day or night.
Remember, the patients are not here for you, rather you are here for the patients. Treat them like you would want a member of your family treated.
Student Call: Students should take call approximately every fifth night. This will vary by service. There is one exception to the student call schedule for students rotating on Opthalmology. If they are available only every third night, they will see nothing at all. Unfortunately, Opthalmology call is not busy enough to have patients every night. Their residents take call from home and have been asked to call whichever medical student is "on call" if an interesting case comes in before 10:00 p.m., or if a really interesting case comes in after that. In reality, they are only being allowed to take advantage of the teaching this provides.
Social Network and Email Policies
The Vanderbilt Social Media Policy is found at: /socialmediatoolkit/26923. Please exercise good judgment when posting personal information.
The instructor will not open emails without knowledge of the sender. If you send an email from an account other than your Vanderbilt account, please put your name in the subject line.
Emails will be answered during normal academic hours (8am-6pm Monday-Friday). Please allow at least 2 "academic" days for a reply to any email you send
Please use proper "email etiquette" when sending emails to the instructor or classmates. Tips for proper email etiquette are available at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/636/01/)