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Elective woes..

I'm currently in final year on my medical elective. A lot of my friends have really enjoyed their electives, saying it was one of their best experiences in med school. Conversely, here I am feeling pretty rubbish every day and barely able to actually go in to the clinic to do my project.

It may be that I am doing it locally, so I'll lack the excitement of being in a foreign city. But I just find that, for the project that I am doing, there really isnt much of a need for me to attend the clinic. With my data, I could easily work from home and finish the analyses and write up within a week or so.

I initially thought about doing more clinic attachments, and potentially have my own "student-run" clinic, kinda like how most final years are like on GP placement. But my consultants have been pretty dismissive of me being there, and despite taking initiative (taking thorough histories, presenting, and preparing investigations), I was told off for wanting to do investigations before presenting back to the consultant, when in reality, I only started filling the forms up for standard investigations that they do for EVERY patient there, so that things could run more efficiently.

I'm just feeling so demoralised, especially since this is the specialty I want to go into in the future, and now I'm having a lot of doubts about it all. Also, with SJTs and AFP interviews coming up, I just feel like I would rather focus my energy on those instead of this rubbish elective. But I fear that I'll get a bad reputation amongst the consultants, or get flagged up for professionalism issues, if I don't appear to be fully committed to the elective.

Any advice on how to get through this nightmare of an elective? :frown:
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Avatar for Ghotay
Ghotay
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Original post by zaps90
But I just find that, for the project that I am doing, there really isnt much of a need for me to attend the clinic. With my data, I could easily work from home and finish the analyses and write up within a week or so.


I don't see why you don't just do that to be honest. If you're not gaining anything by being there, and no one cares if you're there or not... don't go. There are better ways you could spend your time, and you could probably get someone to sign you off early. If you are determined to finish a proper elective, could you look into spending some time in the same department in another hospital where there might be a more supportive team?

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