Ob/Gyn Books

What Students Said... Textbooks - Essentials of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Beckmann) Review Books - First Aid for Ob/Gyn and/or First Aid for Step II CK - Blueprints for Ob/Gyn Case Books - Case Files for Ob/Gyn A very good textbook. Easy to read. Try to read within first month of rotation. Has many good pictures. Good overviews Absolute must! Nice overviews and quick read. Absolute must! Excellent book. Worked well throughout the rotation. Try to read twice with rapid read through second time 2 days before test. Nice selection of questions with good explanations. Great questions (about 200), similar to shelf exam.

Question Books - Pretest for Ob/Gyn Question Banks - USMLE World

Other Resources Students Used: Kaplan Q book, Q bank (ok), First Aid OR (especially if first rotation/before surgery), First Aid Wards (especially if first rotation), High Yield Fill Your Pockets - Maxwells - Pharmacopeia/ePocrates - Mini Spiral Notebook Nice outlines for SOAPs, OR notes Great to look up dosages and classes of drugs. Jot down notes from the day to jog your memory. You can also write down assignments/tasks and stay organized. Good way to keep track of patients for Campus Mobility. A must! Lots of quick reference on almost all areas of the field; nice diagrams

- L&D wheel - The pocket red book (Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Infertility, Handbook for Clinicians)

What to Do the Weekend Before/First Few Days

If you start with OB or nights, try to learn the stages of labor early on (Dr. Christianson will give you a great lecture on this during your first day). It is very helpful to learn how to read monitors (fetal heart tones and how they relate to maternal contractions, i.e. different types of decelerations). If you start with clinic, it is helpful to review what labs/checks are done at prenatal visits. Also, review your STDs, bacterial vaginosis, and Candida infections. If you start with Gyn, review ectopic and molar pregnancies, what a D & C is, indications for a hysterectomy and the relevant anatomy. If you do OB/GYN before your surgery rotation and have no other experience in the OR, its a good idea to review OR procedure and etiquette either in a book like First Aid for OR, the first chapter of Surgical Recall, or with classmates/fourth years that can pass along advice.

What to Do on the Floors

Be assertive and try to see patients as much as possible. Show genuine interest and try to be there for the procedures (OR or deliveries) as it often is recognized and appreciated by the residents. Keep an open mind even if youre 100% not into OB/GYN-the experience can be very rewarding and surprising. It is good to keep a book on hand (like Case Files) so that you can read during downtime, especially since a lot of sites have very demanding hours. Ob: Memorize the cardinal movements of labor within the first few days. It will help you understand the birthing process and be able to practice how to really deliver properly right from the start. Understand the monitors! Gyn: If you are going to be scrubbing into a surgery, participate in the pre-op evaluation and try to read about the indications for the procedure for your particular patient prior to the surgery. Be prepared to be a bystander but also be ready to jump in and help when given a chance to do so. Generally speaking, each hospital is different, but days on the floor commonly go as follows: Ob: pre-round/round on patients in the morning, review of the L&D board, monitoring of laboring patients/deliveries/C-sections/triage throughout day Gyn: pre-round/round on patients, surgeries through morning/early afternoon or ER consults, lectures

Preparing for the Ob/Gyn OSCE & SHELF

OSCE: Not very difficult so do not stress about it. It consists of conducting an H & P on an Ob or Gyn patient and then performing a pelvic exam on a model (do not pop out the uterus! ) SHELF: Study all of Ob during the Ob month and all of Gyn during the Gyn month (if your rotation is split up this way). You can review both during the last week (since you generally tend to have the week of the SHELF free of rotation due to the OSCE and SHELF Review by Dr. Christensen). If you use the textbook, try to read through the respective section during the first 2-3 weeks of the rotation to get an orientation to the general principles then reemphasize the concepts with the other review books you choose to use. Case files is great to go through twice before the exam. Dr. Christensens review at the end is money for the SHELF. Try to attend it as he will review the major concepts of Ob/Gyn.

Ob/Gyn Site-Specific Advice

Site Harper/Hutzel What Students Said Try to read during downtime because you really do not have much study time outside the hospital. However, you see a lot so try to learn from each patient you see. Dr. Christensens weekly sit-down rounds were very good and he practically grooms you for the SHELF. Watch out for the DO students-they can snipe patients! Be aggressive and interested. Great patient diversity! Try to read during downtime because you really do not have much study time. Not as much student autonomy as other places but still a great site. There was free food too! Generally a good site-sees a lot of unique cases. Be nice to the nursing staff-they can make or break you! Can be a tougher/more boring time for male students on L&D (lots of Muslim patients). Long hours (6AM-7PM while on L and D, 7PM-8AM while on nights; can get late while on surgery and consults too) but good teaching from midwives and residents while there. You do 1 week of L & D, 1 week of nights, 1 week of clinic, 1 week of Gyn Onc, 1 week of consults, and 1 week of Gyn surgery. You choose who you will evaluate you (give them evals and follow up to make sure they do it). While on nights, split up your time between consults and L&D (variety makes the night go faster). Will be at West Bloomfield campus for 2 weeks, which is nice. If you live near the area, may want to request

St. John

HFHS

Providence St. Joe (Ann Arbor)

nights and L&D there since those have the longest hours. If you want to be involved w/care instead of shadowing, must be vocal about it. No formal didactics (just student presentations w/faculty facilitating discussion), so be prepared to do more independent reading than w/other rotations. The teaching is good but somewhat inconsistent; take advantage of the better hours for more home study. Be proactive in your learning. The residents and staff are very nice and willing to teach. If youre proactive, there is good opportunity to get involved. Be prepared to read on more unique situations/patients since less volume than other hospitals often means more run of the mill cases.
You must be aggressive and go after what your interested in or you may fall through the cracks. Bring a book/notes to read and be proactive. Make your own opportunities and ask lots of questions. Lots of OR experience. Be very proactive and aggressive or you wont get to do much. The teaching can be lack-luster but Dr. Kwaiser and his group were great

Oakwood

Beaumont

Sinai Grace

There can be lots of down time, so bring materials and be ready to study. The staff are very student friendly. Very nice hours (no weekends), but two weeks of nights that can be very slow.

Useful Note Templates

Maxwells has outlines for an Operative Note, Delivery Note, for Vaginal & CSection Deliveries, and SOAP Note for when you round on patients who had delivered the previous day. These are very useful.