Monday evening this week my lab was required to do our GTA teaching session. GTA stands for Gynecologic Teaching Associate, which is the title of the women who are paid to be teaching assistants for students learning how to do the breast and pelvic exam. The role of the GTA is not just to teach how to do the breast and pelvic exam, but to allow the students to learn the exam by performing it on them while they teach. Now, it's one thing to do a prostate exam (a requirement to fulfill before entering our third year, for whatever reason), but the awkwardness of inserting your first digit in a man's rectum pales in comparison to the awkwardness of performing your first pelvic exam. One thing's certain; you never forget your first time. I was one of two guys in a group of four students, with two GTAs who work as nurses in the OB/Gyn department at Columbia Regional. The nurses gratefully understood the nervousness of performing a pelvic exam, especially for us guys who don't...
Excerpts of a rural hospitalist's thoughts and experiences