Hi everyone,I'm a third year med student who has decided on urology as a career. I am having a few issues though and am seeking advice from what I hope every other med student/resident/attending has undoubtedly gone through -1) I am having a tough time keeping up with what is going on. A lot of it is so new and my skills are so, so basic. I realized that I am not an "on the fly" learner who just picks stuff up. I have to go home, study something, memorize it, and apply it. I'm looking for what are good places to start to learn about urology so I can at least keep up with the conversations that my residents/attendings are having. I have checked out the textbook suggestions from this website and I was planning on getting a copy of Smith's General Urology.2) The shear amount of information is overwhelming. From oncology to pediatrics, from open surgeries to laparoscopic to office procedures, histology to embryology to pharmacology, its just so much that I don't know even know where to begin. Again, I think if I had a good source that I could constantly memorize over and over (like I did with First Aid for Step 1), it would really sink and stay there. I am finding that the real world isn't as organized as standardized tests and its making acquiring information and remembering it much more difficult. Also, I'm sure these feelings are normal but its just silly stuff like how when I have trouble even orienting myself when looking at an ultrasound, let alone figure out what is on it that I feel its going to be impossible to learn all of this one day. I don't see how I would even learn it all by the end of 5 years of urology training. 3) As a medical student interested in urology, what do you expect me to know and how can I even shine in your eyes? Is it better to know basic disease processes and treatments or is now really a time to explore detailed diseases and cases and read up on them. Part of my problem right now is I feel I'll go look something up about a certain disease but then go read uptodate about it and just be overwhelmed instead of just getting a few facts down and moving on.Sorry for the rambling post. I suppose I have lost some self confidence or maybe its the third year med student blues. I personally think I am a hard worker with a curious nature. I'm not a genius, nor do I have an outstanding photographic memory by any stretch of the imagination. I've been fortunate enough till now to have done very well on Step 1 (250+) and my first two years of med school but its funny how meaningless it seems after just a few weeks on the urology service where the GU attendings are gods and residents are future einstein's in my eyes. Thanks for your advice in advance!
I am a 4th year on the interview trail now. From my experience, you do not have to necessarily know a ton of information about Urology. Programs are really looking for a proactive student who shows they are willing to work hard. I have two amazing letters, and one is from a very well known urologist. Quite frankly, all I did was show up early and have numbers ready to go for the residents. I watched a bunch of cysto and stenting procedures and learned each step. I knew what wire to pass and when (which in all honestly is not that hard to learn). All I really did was make the residents life a little easier. In return, the residents told the attendings how much they liked me. Hell, I didn't even interact all that much with one of the attendings that wrote me a stellar letter. Your best advice is to make the resident's job easier, and they will return the favor by giving favorable feedback about you to the attendings. Knowing Smith or Campbell like the back of your hand isn't necessarily the best way to impress your attendings in Urology (at least it wasn't for me). I (and most will agree) recommend Wieder's Urology Handbook for a great pocket guide. It will fit in your white coat pocket, and it is an excellent resource (you can cram about a particular subject before a surgery, though most urologists don't seem to pimp med students). But don't try reading it cover to cover, you don't need to. The website does seem shady as you are emailed a receipt and then pay through paypal, but it is legit. http://www.pocketguidetourology.com/Also, my board score is low 230s... much lower than yours, and I am just shy of 25 interview offers. You've got the scores for urology. You will match and likely at a good program. Enjoy your urology experience. You will do just fine.
Impressing people is like 90% working your ass off on the wards, knowing your patients, getting stuff done for the team. The other 10% is urology knowledge, mostly reading up on the cases you will do the next day and knowing some basics (hematuria workup, prostate CA basics, management of stone disease, BPH). Just be enthusiastic and work hard, and you will come off well. Every story you hear about students who came off poorly, it was because of stuff like asking to leave early, showing up late, scrubbing out of cases to get lunch....in other words, common sense stuff that you should have no problem avoiding.
Hi guys,sorry to sort of hijack this thread, but I thought it was a somewhat related topic as I am also an MS3 thinking of pursuing urology. I haven't had my surgery rotation yet, but scheduled my 3rd year so that I'd have December off to work on research applications w/o the stress of shelves/evals etc. i managed to set up a urology observorship during this time. any insight on what an observorship experience is? whether it will be a carefree opportunity to explore the field or whether i should be aware of being scrutinized (in sub-I fashion)--or any input or insight about observorships, or third year or whatever, at all!also, they advised me to read up on smith's urology--so i kinda contributed to the OP's question, but i'm definitely more of a n00b w a much lower board score than the OP :)thx in advance