Got Veins, Got Blood: First-Years Get Their Hands Dirty at the 2002 Procedural Workshop
Malden, MA. Down the road from now, our first-year TUSM class will probably look back to this year's Basic Medical Procedural Workshop and grin at how green we once were. With questions like "What's an I.U.D?" and "What's an anatomical snuff box?," you couldn't help yourself from having a good belly laugh. It would be safe to say that both the staff and students greatly enjoyed learning and teaching the basic techniques of splinting, phlebotomy, and suturing.
The Saturday morning Procedural Workshop at the Tufts University Family
Medicine Residency in Malden had a good turnout as most first-years welcomed
the opportunity to try on the "doctor hat." This is the sixth
year the workshop has been held and according to this year's reviews,
there will hopefully be many more to come.
The primary purpose of the workshop was to expose first year students
to some of the most common procedures in medicine. In addition, the workshop
provides an opportunity to introduce students to the great opportunities
available in family medicine. This year's Procedural Workshop coordinator,
Dr. Parra Tomkins, MD, commented that medical students are not very aware
of the opportunities in family medicine because of the emphasis on research
at Boston medical schools.
The workshop was co-sponsored by the Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG)
and by the Tufts Family Practice Residency. After the workshop, students
and staff enjoyed a great lunch, and of course free pens, provided by
Megan Crawford of Forest Pharmaceuticals Inc. As first-year medical students,
we could not help from wondering if the pharmaceutical "gifts"
served as a true medical initiation more so than learning how to suture.
"You'll feel juuuust a pinch." ... STAB! With those ageless
words of understatement of pain and false encouragement, most of the students
seemed blazoned with confidence to attempt their first stab - that is
if we could only stabilize our nervous, shaking, clammy hands. When asked
about her experiences with phlebotomy, Naomi Brown M'06 replied, "I
was really scared, but it turned out to be very smooth, exciting, and
[as a patient], it did not hurt too much."
With the look
of a true vampire, Bryan Wexler M'06 proclaimed, "I CAN DRAW BLOOD
FROM PEOPLE [Ha ha ha ha]!" Both Bryan and Naomi concluded the workshop
was great preparation for clinical settings like Sharewood, and they would
definitely advise th
at
all of next year's first year class take advantage of the great opportunity.
Dr. Sara Betakamp volunteered as an instructor and commented, "such
training is nice to see early so that [first-years] can keep in mind what's
coming" -- practical experience. As participants of the workshop
and on behalf of our classmates, we would like to say thank you to all
the Family Medicine faculty and residents for their generous program.
Photos by Jessie Glasser, MD/MPH '05
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