Guidelines

Name Badges & Checkpoint Cards

St Luke’s Hospital Rotations: Please wear your UM name tag. A Checkpoint card and a parking tag (to be hung on your mirror) for the SLH lots will be given to you during your orientation and should be returned to Bonnie Peterson at the end of your rotation.

St Mary’s Hospital Rotations: You will be given a temporary parking permit to be placed in the back window of your car. During your UMD Clerkship Orientation, you will be given a form to complete and take with you to get an official SMDC Name Badge and Checkpoint Card. The ID & Access Office is located in St Mary’s Hospital, room 2210 (2nd floor by the center elevators). It takes about 5 minutes to get your picture taken and badge made.

Library

The Checkpoint Card allows you to access the hospital libraries at any time, day or night. Plan to spend at least 2 half-days per week in the library reviewing specific cases or topics as assigned by your preceptor, researching information as needed for the PBL cases, or reviewing general medical information. Although the clinical time is very valuable and might be difficult to pull yourself away from, you will find it to be much more productive if you take some time each day, along with these few larger blocks each week, to review the patient problems you have encountered. Jeff edit

Pagers

For rotations which require you to have a pager, you will receive a pager either from the Department or borrow a pager from the hospital:

• St. Luke's: Jean Nordland Skomars, 726-5527
• SMDC: Help Desk, 786-3342
  If you have a pager, please let Bonnie (726-7034) and your preceptor/office know your number.

Personal Digital Assistants/Record Keeping

You will be given a PDA as you start your rotation in OBGYN, MED I, ENT, ORTHO/SPORTS MED, NSUR, and UROL. In OBGYN, Neurology, Primary Care Clerkships you will also have data collection responsibilities from the Twin Cities. In Emergency Medicine, there are shift cards to be completed by your attendings. In several of the newer clerkships, you will be asked to keep an informal record of your activities.

These are intended for documentation of your patient experiences, both for yourself, and to provide important feedback to us. For future medical privileges and credentialing, it will be important to document your patient experiences, both as a medical student and a resident. From our standpoint, in order to continue to offer high quality clinical learning opportunities, it is vitally important that we document student/patient encounters to allow adjustments within the rotations as needed.

PBL Cases

At the beginning of some rotations, you will receive brief PBL cases on patient problems specific to your rotation. Along with this will be some discussion points; you and your preceptor may come up with other topics or pertinent discussions. After you've had an opportunity to do your reading on these topics, make a point to discuss this with your preceptor.

Rural Site Visits

Many attending physicians travel to neighboring rural communities for patient consultations. These are excellent opportunities to see a large number of patients with a variety of presenting complaints, and to see the interaction between the specialty and primary care physicians. Students often rate these as some of their best learning opportunities, and we would encourage you to participate in these visits during the rotation.

General Orientation Guidelines

In order to make your rotation as productive and pleasant as possible, there are key resource people you should get to know. If you are on a service with residents, it is important to introduce yourself to them on the first day of the rotation, and to establish a good working relationship. Your experiences and learning opportunities will be greatly influenced by how well you can work together; they can also be great teachers.

Most preceptor's offices have a medical student contact person, whose name you will receive from Bonnie. This person can help you maximize your learning opportunities. They are interested in your well-being and enjoy having you around the office.

If you are on a surgical subspecialty rotation, it will be important to orient yourself to the Operating Room, and identify the O.R. contact person to make sure to follow proper procedure.
If you are on a medical subspecialty, the charge nurse and the Health Unit Coordinator (HUC) on the medical floor will be important contacts.

It is important to identify your level of training, what you hope to gain from the rotation, and to learn about the resources available on the ward as well as the general operating procedures. You will find that the nursing staff and support personnel are excellent teachers. Plan to take advantage of opportunities you have to spend time with them.

Locations
DFPC/FPC: Duluth Family Practice Center, 330 N 8th Ave E
SLH: St. Luke's Hospital, 915 E 1st St
SMMC: St. Mary's Medical Center, 407 E 3rd St
MDMC: Miller-Dwan Medical Center, 502 E 2nd St

Bonnie Peterson, Program Coordinator (218) 726-7034
Jeff Adams, MD UMD School of Medicine (218) 726-7916