How to Prepare for Clinical Rotations

To start, I’m not writing this post because I feel like I was the best prepared student for clerkships or because I feel like I’m the smartest person around. In fact, I’m almost writing it from the perspective of someone who wishes they had done a lot differently.

Step 1 = A great knowledge base

One thing that I believe helps a lot is taking USMLE Step 1 before rotations. Most people do it this way, but Yale doesn’t. Luckily for us, rotations are more relaxed than at other schools, but the downside is that you have Step 1 looming over you the entire year, and then you essentially have to take Step 1 and Step 2 back to back. If you’ve already taken Step 1, though, trust that you have a great foundational knowledge base going in to rotations! I feel so much smarter after having prepared for and taken that exam than I did at the beginning of my clerkship year!

Prep work can mean different things

Everyone is worried about different things when it comes to rotations, so do whatever you have to do to feel comfortable and reduce your stress! One of the most intimidating things for me was knowing I would have to interview patients on my own. During some rotations, I had a computer with the EMR in front of me and a template with all the questions to ask for the history. During other rotations, I had to take a history on paper with little prior information about the patient. For each rotation, though, I prepared for the worst and had printed out History and Physical templates for myself, which I brought with me. Depending on the rotation, there were different questions in the templates. History and physical templates can be found online, and I usually looked at 2 or 3 templates for the given specialty and took what I liked from each one.

Anki

I think keeping up with Anki helps retain information, and I’m glad I started doing this at the beginning of my clinical year. I wish I’d done it from the very start of medical school because I might not have had to focus as much on pre-clinical review during rotations that way. If you’ve already taken Step 1, then I feel like doing a Step 2 anki deck (WiWa, Zanki, etc.) during clinical year would be great.

Question Banks

This was so not a part of my routine because I hadn’t even taken STEP 1, so no way was I going to be doing STEP 2 questions during rotations. HOWEVER, I WISH I had been simultaneously doing STEP 2 questions during my rotations- I would have retained so much more information that way. I think all students at other schools do use UWorld questions during their rotations, and I would recommend doing questions to prepare for shelf exams. It’s so tough to come home from the hospital and study, but I feel like 1-2 hours per day during the week is doable and really adds up!

Thanks so much for reading, and please leave any additional tips below!