Today, I am reflecting upon an integral resource for medical students: residents. Over the course of my medical education thus far, I have had the opportunity of learning in a number of different environments. From academic centers to community hospitals to private practices, each experience has offered its own unique approaches to teaching.

As a student at the Mississauga Academy of Medicine, most of my core clerkship rotations took place in community settings. During these rotations, the reality was that there was no abundance of students around. For the majority of my experiences in Mississauga, I was working directly with a staff physician, and no other learners. For instance, in core rotations such as emergency medicine, anesthesia, and even most surgical rotations, there were no residents around. However, I did end up doing a single, 6-week rotation in obstetrics and gynecology at Mt. Sinai hospital. This is really when I first experienced a world with residents. In this setting, there was often actually more residents around than there were other medical students.

A world full of residents has its own pros and cons. Firstly, there is no doubt that, as a medical student, residents are an extremely valuable resource for learning. In contrast to most staff physicians, residents are closer to the medical student experience, and remember what it is like to be a medical student. In general, they are better able to relate to our level of knowledge and experience, and this usually translates into an excellent teaching environment. However, on the other hand, having many residents around can also mean that certain experiences are taken away from you. In particular, I generally found that many “hands-on” tasks that I had practiced in Mississauga, such as intubations in anesthesia, or assisting the surgeon in the OR, were instead assigned to the residents.

With all this in mind, I hope to think back to this reflection next year, when I myself am a resident, and have the pleasure of teaching medical students. I foresee challenges when it comes to the delegation of certain tasks, because, as much as I would love to let medical students practice, as a resident I will have to ensure that I am competent in all areas. I’m sure that this is a conflict that all residents before me have had at one point or another, and having reflected upon these thoughts now, I feel confident in my ability to handle it moving forward.

- AS