Hi, this is a video in a series on medical
student resumes or medical student CVS.
So if you're a medical student, you would like some
help with your resume.
You're in the right place.
And look, even if you're not a student, you may
find some of these tips useful.
So please feel free to stay watching.
Hi, I'm Dr Anthony Llewellyn, the Career Doctorand I'm here to help you manage
your medical career.
Now one of the more unique issues with medical student
resumes, and I should clarify, we are talking about the
one that you generally put together at the end of
the medical school years, the one you need for intern applications.
See, one of the issues is it can be a
struggle to show up point of difference in your At
this point in your career, you might be lucky to
have won some awards or have a higher than normal
grade point average.
But generally most medical students have the same types of
experiences and learn the same things in medical school.
So it can be really hard to stand out.
Kenneth.
So I recently gave a seminar to some fourth year
medical students at my local university about the importance of
being well rounded in one's medical career and being able
to demonstrate a range of competencies on your The find
like I like for this is the candidate's framework.
I've done a few more extended videos about candidates, so
I'll leave a link to one of those videos if
you want some further details, but suffice enough to say
is a thoroughly well tested model that basically says that
we are looking for in a good doctor is someone
who is not only a medical expert but has strengths
in the areas of communication, collaboration, advocating for patients in
good health outcomes, scholarship, I. E.
teaching, learning and research being a leader and of course
be a professional.
So good.
So far, when I spoke to my students about this
concept, they could all say that there was more to
being adopted than their medical knowledge and skills.
They asked me, how can we actually demonstrate that we
have competencies in those areas What are the opportunities we
have between now and the end of medical school graduation
where we can develop these other competencies more or demonstrate
our proficiency Fair enough.
Question.
So let's take one of these competencies.
Let's take communication.
I've deliberately chosen communication as it can be an extremely
difficult competency to write about in a resume.
Yet it's almost always there as a case selection criteria
and jokes.
Lots of doctors, not just medical students, would just write
that they are a very effective communicator who says, where's
the evidence Well, if you think about it for a minute,
in medical school, there are plenty of opportunities to demonstrate
your capability as a communicator and collect some evidence for
your resume.
You just have to be strategic and have a bit
of a plan.
Look, if you just rely on what the medical school
says to learn, you're going to miss these opportunities that
I'm now going to point out for you.
Opportunity number one, communication training sessions.
Most medical schools these days incorporate specific sessions or training around
communication.
Engagingly sessions.
Find out what the curriculum or learning outcomes are for
these sessions.
Write these learning outcomes down in a log book or
a diary somewhere.
You can find going to these sessions with a specific
goal in mind.
If for example, you feel that you want to work
on counseling patients as part of your communication training, then
tell the teacher of the workshop, this is what you
want to do at the start and ask if there's
going to be a specific opportunity in the session for
you to practice this aspect of your communication and get
feedback.
Write a short reflective piece about what you learnt as
a reminder and a reinforcer.
Now when it comes to putting your resume together, you
suddenly have something more substantial to write about.
For example, as a communicator, I was trained by my
medical school to be an effective and patient centered listener
and communicator.
I learned the benefits and utility of various communication techniques
including both open and closed questions.
I learned how to successfully handle difficult communication challenges such
as breaking bad news or inquiring about suicide.
A personal goal for me and all of this was
to achieve high quality counseling skills, which I'm pleased to
say I was.
I would achieve so that I am competent in a
range of counseling situations for interns including discharge planning, the
impact of lifestyle and health and of course discussing common
medications and their possible side effects.
Opportunity number two, end of term reports.
Most medical schools will require that you get some sort
of end of term rotation or supervisor report.
Use these to collect feedback and information about your communication
strengths and your weight points.
I would encourage all medical students to start out each
rotation.
Again with a few clear learning goals in mind if
communication is one of these, make sure that this is
clear to the consultants and the training doctors and other
team members that you're going to work with.
Be as specific as possible about what it is that
you are working on and encourage them to be as
specific as possible for you.
So again, going back to our previous example, perhaps you
want feedback on your counseling skills.
Say this up front in your team or most likely
help construct opportunities to practice these skills and give you
some feedback at the end of this rotation and others.
You will then hopefully have meaningful comments in your supervisor
reports, which you can now use on your resume.
Check with your supervisor at the end of your turn
and make sure that you are provided with plenty of
written feedback.
Then when it comes to putting together your resume, you
have more to write about.
For example, across my last two clinical years of medical
school, my supervisor reports consistently show that I excelled in
communication.
I was signed off as competent as being able to gathera relevant
history, make appropriate file notes, complete an effective discharge summary and
conduct a handover and do a basic patient counseling session.
Opportunity number three, so my final opportunity for you to
both enhance your communication and demonstrate it on your resume
might be seen as a little bit unorthodox than the
last two suggestions, but I'd encourage you to consider this
one.
As someone who's interviewed thousands of doctors over time for
various jobs, there are a few things that speak more
highly about someone's impact as a communicator.
Then actual patient feedback.
Very few doctors bother to gather feedback from patients about
things like communication, so there is a really great opportunity
for you to stand out.
Think about putting together a short survey or questionnaire for
the patients that you are seeing as part of your
rotation.
Make sure of course that you can see the issues
with consent and privacy.
It's probably best not to collect any demographic details or
even case details at all.
You just want the feedback around your communication.
Whenever you see a patient, ask them if they wouldn't
mind filling out this quick survey about your communication very
quickly you'll be able to compile a useful set of
data and information that will probably show your areas of
strength, which you can have point out on your resume
and areas for improvement.
For example, during medical school I also conducted a survey
of 20 patients who indicated that I was an effective
listener, was able to communicate in light language and that
that would be more than happy with having me as
the intern.
So there you go.
Some tips about how to talk about your communication on
your CV or resume.
Some of these you might be able to act on
already based on existing data that you've collected.
Some might require you to think about the reminder of
your medical student dice.
Now, as I said, this will be a video in
a series of our medical students, CVS and resumes.
So if you have a question or comment about anything
in this video, please leave it in the description below.
If there are other topics around the medical students CV
or resume you would like to see me cover.
Then also leave me a comment down below.
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