by Jay Lieberman, DPM
PRESENT Editor

While you are in residency training, there are unique opportunities that are available to you that may not be so readily available once you graduate. For example, I am fascinated by plastic surgery and would love to see first-hand how many of these procedures are performed.

As a resident, I was always welcome to assist in these cases, and the attending was more than willing to offer a doctor in training some useful information. My busy schedule prohibits me from taking an hour or two off to simply observe a case. Additionally, physicians are not as willing to offer their time and expertise once you graduate.  PRESENT Courseware recognizes this and has created a "Things To Do List" for while you are in training.
 

 

	Ride shotgun with paramedics
	Spend a Friday night in the E.R.
	Attend a quality assurance meeting
	Attend a Future Medical Solutions Practice Management Seminar
	Send in an interesting case to be shared with Residents around the country in a PRESENT Residency Insight issue
	Help in or observe the birth of a child (other than your own)
	Scrub in on a Femoral Popliteal Bypass
	Scrub in on plastic surgery cases, or those in other surgical specialties that you are particularly interested in
	Bring a specimen to pathology and look at it with the pathologist
	Go to bacteriology and observe the process in obtaining a culture and sensitivity
	Attend a Code Blue
	Observe the latest in interventional radiology
	See follow-ups at your attendings' offices
	Obtain permission and practice your procedures on a cadaver specimen
	Scrub in a lot of orthopedic surgeries
	Have some fun with staff in the hospital (They know what to do with their free time). Chances are, they have some great stories.
	See the movie, "The Doctor," starring William Hurt