Congratulations… Doctors.

Wow, what a roller coaster of emotions at this time of year, huh? Finally finishing medical school – a little nostalgia, and lots of relief. For a few weeks being called “Doctor” is going to be pretty awesome. And a few weeks after that, well, it’s going to be pretty scary (and awesome at the same time).

Well, if any of you are looking for gifts medical students (or for yourself), here are some gift ideas for medical students and new interns:

(In the interest of full disclosure: these are affiliate links, meaning that I might get a small commission if you purchase them through my link. It will not affect your cost at all. Alternatively, you can search Amazon, or something and order them directly. I still highly recommend these gifts.)

You go through all of this training to get where you are and then you find yourself in a situation where you are 100%, completely, and utterly dependent on technology to make a diagnosis… Well, Sapira’s Art and Science of Bedside Diagnosis can change all of that. And not only that… it can make you stand out as being light years ahead of your peers.

It’s not essential for “surviving” internship, but who is only interested in “surviving” anyway?

Too many people tell you which books to get… and too often (you know how it goes)… those books just end up on the shelf and you use them more like reference books. Well, this is the only textbook-sized book I actually carried with me while I was on-call. The ICU Book. It’s that good.

Seriously… this book is the real deal. It’s easy to read… not because it is dumbing-down the material, because it isn’t. It’s easy to read because it has just the right amount of information. Not too much and not too little.

This is the line of stethoscope I use (and hey, I work primarily on cardiac floors): Littmann Master Cardiology. There’s a pretty good review of this stethoscope at HolterMonitor.org.

Some people prefer the amplifying stethoscopes. I do not. At this point they’re a little too bulky. Maybe as technology improves, so will the size and weight. But who needs more heavy stuff to carry around with them? Plus, you better learn on the standard stuff and only use the souped up technology to supplement. Too many people are already losing diagnostic skills and relying too much on technology (… but I digress).

You can get funny medical humor gifts like mugs, shirts, hats, bags, etc at the GiggleMed.com Store. There’s even a funny infection control humor book, Bugs on Scrubs, that pits a doctor and a nurse against each other -arguing over who is spreading infection – hilarious, evidence-based advice in rhyming Dr Seuss-style text.

Funny stuff. A great stress reliever… even if you don’t buy something… there are things to forward along, especially at high-stress times. You can really make someone’s day with appropriate humor.

OK… shameless plug time… Of course, there are some awesome gifts from this very site. If you want to “Wow” your graduating medical student friend or family member, give them a RookieDoctor.com Membership or an Internship Survival Skills Audio CD. The timing couldn’t be better in light of that emotional roller coaster I mentioned above. These RookieDoc products are designed for the medical student from 3rd-to-4th year transitioning into internship.

If you have other ideas for gifts for medical students, post them in the comments below.

Need a crazy holiday gift idea for a medical student, a stressed-out intern, a resident, or a practicing physician? Check out these funny medical humor gifts from GiggleMed.com. (These are the same guys that hooked me up with the RookieDoc logo)…

I could earn a piddly commission if you buy something through this link. If you don’t want me to earn a commission, just go to GiggleMed.com and browse the GiggleMed Store (there’s a link in their sidebar). This stuff is worth it… especially as gag gifts for colleagues and friends. Med students can be pretty hard to shop for.

You can get other medical humor gifts like mugs, shirts, hats, bags, etc at GiggleMed’s Store.

In the next post, I’ll try to cover some practical gifts for med students, residents, and interns.

I just saw one of my friends who happens to be one of the four main developers of YottaLook.com – a radiology search engine. Seeing him reminded me of the site, which I tend to jump to when I need a quick radiographic image to teach a resident or a nurse practitioner.

But it hadn’t occurred to me until today that I should share this site with the RookieDoc community.

Anyway, YottaLook is pretty cool and it is starting to gain some steam. It was recently listed as one of the Top 100 Alternative Search Engines… #16, in fact.

If you need to look up a serious radiology question, but you don’t want to wade through a yotta junk search results, then RookieDoc recommends YottaLook.

Links to YottaLook sites:

• YottaLook (home)
• About YottaLook – learn about the name, the developers, & why it’s so powerful
• YottaLook Blog – stay up-to-date with their latest developments
• YottaLook Image Search
• YottaLook Journal Search

There are several aspects of receiving feedback that are ultra-important during your training. The first is recognizing completely useless feedback. Unfortunately, most residency programs do nothing more than get your attending preceptors to fill out evaluation forms. And like a lot of things in healthcare, a number is assigned… something measurable, sort of. The problem with this approach is that these attendings are never given instruction or guidance on exactly HOW to evaluate or exactly HOW to give good feedback. So, it is important for you to recognize useless feedback.

Once recognized as useless, you should be able to turn it around and extract something useful… something you can build on. (I give you the exact scripts to use to accomplish this – in the members area).

Now those two are about getting feedback… the next thing you have to do is receive that feedback…

And finally, know what to do with it.

Well, I found an article that is nice a short and does a good job of providing an overview for accepting feedback. Here it is. It is used with permission from EzineArticles.com:

Workplace Communication – Accepting Feedback
By Ken Okel

Receiving feedback or criticism is a funny thing. When it’s good, we accept it and when it’s bad, we doubt its accuracy. Lost in all the emotions could be some good information that could help your career. Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of someone’s comments.

Just Listen: When you’re being told something that you didn’t do well, it’s very tempting to immediately interrupt and start defending yourself. Resist the urge. Listen to the comments and think about them for a moment before you say anything. When you do speak, say something neutral like, “Thanks for telling me that.” Remember, you’re on a quest for information that can help improve your skills. You may want to follow up with a question designed to let you know what you should do the next time you’re in a similar situation. “How would you handle the situation?” is a good one in that it gives you an example to follow.

Analyze Your Successes: When you receive positive feedback, it’s easy to start congratulating yourself but not think about what you did right. Here the ego takes over. But sometimes, it’s possible to stumble into success with no idea of what you did well. To get the full story, ask some questions like, “What could I do better?” which can keep the discussion going.

Don’t Carry Around Comments Like Luggage: It’s easy to hold on to feedback long after it can be useful. Listen to the information, consider how you can improve or continue a good practice, and then, move on.

Consider the Source: Most advice comes from a well meaning place but that doesn’t mean it’s always right. Upon listening to it, you may know immediately that it’s worthless (make sure you’re certain of this) but it’s still important to listen and then thank the person for the feedback. Just the act of listening shows respect to the other person. Sure, their advice may be bogus but if you overreact, then they’ll likely never again give you feedback, which could hurt you later on if their observations improve.

In his presentation, “Stop Crying in Your Cubicle” Ken Okel helps companies communicate better, become more efficient, and smile a whole lot more.

For his free newsletter and special report, 7 Communication Mistakes that are Costing You Money, go to his website at http://www.kenokel.com

You’ll also be able to see a video of Ken’s famous police dog attack story.

See Ken’s tips invade YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/user/KenOkel

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Okel

OK. This might seem a little out of place. To some of you, it might even seem like one big load of crap. But it’s neither.

The early parts of your training (medical school, internship and residency especially) can feel very forced and directed at times. Go here. Do this. Get that. Well, you can actually take back control of your experience with this one touchy-feely brainstorm exercise.

This is an exercise that a friend of mine who is into psychology and marketing sent to me. And after trying it myself, I initially thought, wow… let me share this with my blog readers and members. Then a little naysayer voice in my head conjured up thoughts of what everyone’s reactions would be. So, I sort of left it for a while. It’s touchy-feely, in a way. It deals with your wants and your fears.

Well, things have come up lately that required me to look back at the results of my previous exercise/brainstorm. And, wow… it’s right on target… providing clarity. So, I decided to share it with you after all. This is the type of thing that would be immensely beneficial if done early in training. But it has to be done sincerely and honestly.

If you know what you want, you can work on the right things. If you’re at all like me, when you’re in the thick of things, sometimes you get caught up in the task at hand and forget the “why”. At some point you stop and say, “Wait a minute. This just isn’t worth my time, my energy, my attention, and certainly not worth me worrying over it.” So you re-evaluate. Not necessarily in some formal sort of way, like this exercise, but you re-think it. Stopping and re-thinking is great… But what if you could “pre-think it”? That would be infinitely better.

Anyway, enough rambling. You’ll either thank me for this or just think I’m a tad weird.

It’s a little long (67 minute video), but if you do the steps, it’s well worth the time spent watching the video and doing the exercise. It takes a minute to load… Here it is:

First, my apologies…

I need to apologize for the brief blog post hiatus. My daughter’s basketball team is in local championship game, I’ve been ultra-busy opening a new unit at the hospital, and I’m planning a trip to San Diego… plus my wife is pretty far along (pregnant) with number 5. But, in the midst of all of that, I’ve been working on several awesome things for the site…

• The next video for Fiscal Therapy Rounds is about something I call, “The Doctor Tax”. Basically it covers why prices are inflated for doctors and how to resist it. I’ll try to post it in the next day or so.
• I recently finished an awesome interview with a co-author of the book Write Your Way to a Residency Match and I’m preparing a surprise for members before releasing the interview. It’s chock full of great information, so you won’t want to miss this. It applies to residency and fellowship applications. Awesome stuff. (RookieDoc Members: don’t buy this book yet. Trust me. The surprise I’m going to offer you with this book is worth the wait. I just need to get approval first.)
• Next week, I am conducting more interviews for you. The interview I am most excited about is actually with a VP from a malpractice company that is run by doctors. It’s one thing to learn how to do stuff right the first time… but when you hear how some people go wrong… you’ll never forget it.
• I’ve received a massive influx of questions in the Ask RookieDoc question section. Be patient with me as I try to get to them. I’ve already emailed a couple of you directly. But the other questions are going to be answered in one of two ways – (a) in the next FAQ call (more info coming soon), or (b) in upcoming videos. (see the next bullet)
• Residency Horror Stories. Although she may not know it, a RookieDoc member (Trish) answered a survey question about the Pager Module that sparked a whole new line of RookieDoc videos. They’re not just horror stories… they are real-life stories from med school, internship, and residency, that have important lessons for your training. Be on the lookout for these. They’re going to be priceless. Thanks Trish

Got any other ideas, questions or needs? Let me know. Post a comment below, or just ask.

As most of you know, RookieDoc Radiology Rounds usually focuses on actual radiographic studies – like reading chest x-rays, abdominal films, head CTs, chest CTs, and other bread-and-butter studies that are ultra-important for your training.

Well, this time, rather than focusing on reading studies, I made a quick video (a little over 5 minutes) that goes through choosing the right studies. Click on the video image below to get started. (And I apologize ahead of time, I was pretty sick when I was making the video… my hair is schlepped, my eyes have bags under them, and I wasn’t my cheery self. Anyway, hope you like it.)

If you found this video useful, you should see the RookieDoc Radiology Rounds videos available to members.

I’m re-opening the doors to accept new members starting Tuesday 1/27/09 at 12 noon EST. If you’re on the Priority Notification List, you will be notified 24 hours before everyone else. Put your name and email below.

Found this great site for heart sounds review. Check it out.