Those who pursue a career in healthcare are often motivated by the desire to help others. Anusha, an AMO visitor from India and our June Photo/Blog contest winner, is one of those people. Her decision to pursue a rotation in OBGYN was not just in the interest of her career, but a decision that also allowed her to continue her advocacy work for reproductive rights.

Anusha found exactly what she was looking for in her rotation through AMOpportunities. From culturally diverse patient interactions, to virtual calls with students around the world, to a conference presentation, Anusha’s rotations provided plenty of learning opportunities both about her field and about the experiences of others.

Read more about Anusha’s story below!

 

Rotate Local; Learn Global

After graduating from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal (India) in 2020, I decided to pursue my residency in ObGyn in the U.S. My decision was based on my continued passion for the subject and my interest in advocacy for reproductive rights and justice. While looking for rotations, I had a clear idea of what I wanted: An ObGyn rotation which was Hands-On, and a preceptor that was supportive of my goals.

I wrote innumerable emails to professors requesting rotations, but it was challenging because most universities were not accepting students to avoid the risk of COVID-19. I had heard about AMOpportunities from a couple of seniors from medical school. After scrolling through multiple rotations that AMOpportunities had to offer, I decided to enroll for an ObGyn rotation at AMITA Health Resurrection in Chicago with Dr. A. AMOpportunities was an amazing service that helped connect me with Dr. A for this rotation. Their representatives (shout out to Coach Wanh) were always available and got back to me with answers to all of my queries. After I had uploaded all the required documents, I received an immediate follow-up about what to do next to start my rotation.

On my first day, I was apprehensive about what to expect and what was expected of me. However, Dr. A was incredibly patient through the process of acclimating me to his ObGyn practice. I quickly caught on, and the rest of the month was a blur of some amazing memories. Dr. A entrusted us with talking to the patient in order to gather a history and conduct a basic physical examination. Patients presented for antenatal visits, routine gynecological check-ups, postmenopausal complaints, routine office procedures like saline hysterosonograms, pap smears, colposcopies and more.

Most of his patients were English as a Second Language (ESL), but they were always so receptive to talking to me, and I took the time to interact with them. This gave me a great opportunity to understand the intricacies of a multi-linguistic population, and I believe this will help me integrate important cultural complexities in the future. Dr. A provided constructive advice on how we could improve our clinical notes and always added comments on the management of every patient. He would explain the rationale for treatment for every disease process and walk the patients through what they could expect.

Over the course of a month, I made some great friends with the other students who were also completing their rotation in ObGyn. Together, we made a great team! We assisted Dr. A with basic office procedures and he guided us through the entire process step-by-step. He also created a conducive atmosphere to ask questions so we could have a holistic learning experience.

Every evening we had a zoom conference, where we got to interact with students from across the world. We presented the cases we saw during the day, followed by a round of questions. Dr. A would highlight some important features of various conditions and stress on the high yield information that was relevant for our learning. We also had multiple virtual presentations of relevant journal articles and ACOG practice bulletins by the students. I had the chance to virtually present a journal article about Endometrial Cancer published in the NEJM, and it was a great experience.

Overall, I had a great time throughout my rotation at AMITA. Toward the end, Dr. A gave us a better insight about matching into ObGyn based on his experience. I would definitely recommend enrolling for rotations and learn the intricacies of the U.S. healthcare system. AMOpportunities is helping connect students with preceptors and we as students and International Medical Graduates should make best of the opportunities we can access. I’m glad I made the decision to enroll for this rotation because I came out more confident and grateful for the experiences and connections I had made!