Kgothatso Legong, Fifth year medical student at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University.
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In third and fourth year of medical school clinical rotation in SMU, students only get to learn about obstetrics. With third year being very limited and students only learning normal obstetrics for most part. The only pathology which is a must to learn is about HIV in pregnancy. When I started my gynaecology this year in fifth year, I was very excited as my scope of knowledge regarding female pathologies, examination, and management would be expanding. Gynaecology is an area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined area of obstetrics and gynaecology. I would describe obstetricians and gynaecologists and being both surgeons and physicians in nature.
My rotation in gynaecology was three weeks long and was quickly followed by another three weeks which was spent in obstetrics. Below, I detail my experiences in this rotation:
1. Great consultants
On our first day we meet with one of the consultants in our unit. He took us in like we are his sons and daughters and orientated us to the unit. He detailed what the unit does on daily basis – for example, on Monday we had grand ward rounds, on Tuesday it was Antenatal care (ANC) clinic, then we had a call on Wednesday, the following day it was post call ward rounds from a call we had. Finally, on Friday it was theatre day – and believe it or not, I assisted on my first week on an emergency caesarean section.
2. Calls were not hectic
Compared to obstetric calls, gynae calls are not as demanding. The patients are predictable, and their prognosis does not deviate haphazardly. On the day we were on call, we were supposed to attend ward rounds at 08:00 where the previous unit which was on call would be handing over to us. The ward rounds took place at maternity ward. After they were done, my unit and I made our way to the clinic, Gynaecology Outpatient Department (GOPD). There, we saw patients, and sometimes admitted patients to our brown unit. If patients presented to the hospital beyond clinic hours, they would then be seen at causality by us as well.
The following day, even though we had an early morning class for an hour from Seven O’clock; immediately after it had ended, ward rounds would commence in the maternity ward and students were required to be present and present their patients to the unit which was taking over.
3. Weekend calls take a different approach
Contrast to the weekdays calls which are from 08:00 to 13:00 then continue from 16:00 and end at 00:00, weekend calls are supposed to be for 24 hours. This is what is what is official, but of course, they will be longer than that if take into consideration that handing over ward rounds can drag depending on the character of the leading consultant.
At the end of the unit rotation, I had to write a case about one of the patients I came across in my clinical work. The case flowed very well. The experience in gynaecology was a precious and one what I am treasuring to my internship and community service years.
