Inpatient/Outpatient US Clinical Experience in Vascular Surgery in Huntsville

Information about this clinical experience:

This is an inpatient and outpatient experience during which you will be under the supervision of a physician who is board-certified in general surgery and vascular surgery. The physician is on staff at North Alabama Medical Center. This preceptor is an international medical graduate and very familiar with the challenges that IMGs face in reaching their professional goals. The preceptor enjoys mentoring others and has spoken and written about how IMGs can be successful. The attending is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Kentucky College of Osteopathic Medicine.

One day of the week will be spent in the physician's office where you will encounter patients with a wide variety of vascular disease. You will be involved in the evaluation and management of these patients. Four days of the week will be spent in the hospital observing surgeries in the operating room or catheterization lab and rounding on hospitalized patients. The surgical case mix involves treatment of conditions using both minimally invasive endovascular and traditional open procedures.

During your experience, you will learn the following U.S. medical practices under the preceptor’s supervision:

• Taking patient histories.

• Performing physical exams under the physician's supervision.

• Presenting patients.

• Have opportunities to educate patients.

• Observing a variety of surgeries (per hospital policy, rotators are not permitted to scrub in).

• Have opportunities to research the literature to answer clinical questions at the point of care.

• Delivering talks to the team.

• Spending time with other healthcare professionals to understand their roles and responsibilities.

• As a result of hospital policies, inpatient activities will be more observational. The hands-on component of this rotation will mostly take place in the outpatient setting.