Been exceptionally busy over the last week or so, for personal and professional reasons. I have a ton of posts in the works, but haven't had much time to actually sit down and get them done.
One of the things keeping me busy lately has been my involvement in the Western Student Ultrasound Symposium. I'm immensely proud of my time over the past 4 years with this event, essentially since its inception, so get ready for some shameless plugging!
Ultrasound, specifically point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become increasingly important in medical practice. For those in Emergency Medicine and Anesthesiology, it's practically required. For those in General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery, Internal Medicine, and Pediatrics, POCUS comes up reasonably often, particularly in certain subspecialties of these disciplines like critical care. As ultrasound technology has become more powerful and less expensive, it has been all the more convenient to use it in everyday practice, whether that's performing a quick diagnostic test or for assistance with a procedure.
It's a great teaching tool as well, particularly when it comes to anatomy. Cardiac anatomy is a lot easier to understand when you can actually see it beating, then move your ultrasound probe around to see what it looks like from different angles! In addition, while neither specialty uses POCUS itself, both Obstetrics and Diagnostic Radiology have to be pretty proficient in ultrasound techniques, so learning the principles of the technology at an early stage has its advantages. I'm applying to Family Medicine this coming CaRMS cycle and will take a lot of what I learned through POCUS into my residency, even if I only ever use an ultrasound machine on my Emergency Medicine rotations.
Why do I bring this up now? Well, the Symposium this year is only a few weeks away, to be held in London on August 20th. We've had a few last-minute cancellations, and have an open spot or two for medical students of any training level. It's an easy way to add something meaningful to your CV in preparation for CaRMS, as well as a skill to your repertoire for residency.
Sign-ups for interested medical students can be found here: http://www.cvent.com/d/dfqt0l
There is a cost, which we try to keep to an absolute minimum. We will have billeting for those coming from out of town. I'm happy to answer any further questions for those who may be interested!
What about for those not yet in medical school? We restrict the Symposium itself to medical students, but there are opportunities for pre-meds as well. In particular, we ask for pre-meds to help us out as volunteer patient models for scanning. I did this myself before starting medical school!
As a patient model, you're right in the middle of the teaching, so there's lots of opportunities to learn. We do all the work of organizing the Symposium, so volunteers' only responsibility is being models for scanning, no extra work. It's also a great chance to interact with medical students, see a bit of what they learn, and to ask questions about how they find medical school - I try to give our volunteers every opportunity to ask me questions about medical school, from admissions to residency applications, one-on-one for those who are interested.
Sign-ups for pre-meds interested in volunteering can be found here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGp0aNGPt89NGFWuuchV1dUYe4loqcaIrYFgJDSCHGYi40eg/viewform?c=0&w=1
Ok, that does it for the shameless plugging for now. Will try to get back to a more normal posting schedule soon!
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