MD Consult continues to look for ways to extend its service. The Student Union feature is aimed at supporting medical students while still in school, as a way of developing familiarity with and loyalty to the MD Consult product. It tries to provide a place for students to find friendly advice and support, though without any personal contact component. Located under the Learning Center tab, the Student Union offers several unique areas of content:
The Clerkship Survival Guide includes tools, such as a medical abbreviation dictionary, and advice. The advice has to be fairly generic, since the resource isn’t specific to any one school. Still, the advice can be useful to students hungry for support, or for students looking ahead. Jefferson’s own AOA chapter also provides guides and advice that are specific to the Jefferson experience.
Case studies are included, from a variety of published sources. They are short and only 18 are available at the moment, but MD Consult is working to increase the number. There are too few to organize by topic, or to be worth a search engine, but as the quantity grows, MD Consult will probably add that enhancement. Cases are always popular with students who like to test their knowledge in a setting without consequences.
Current Topics features this month’s headlines from medical student journals, popular media, and material written by the Student Union editorial team. Topics tend to be practical, ranging from “Do Patients Care What You Wear?” to “Needlestick Injuries Among Medical Students.”
The Get Published! section offers students the opportunity to post short articles, called editorials. Be aware that doing so constitutes publication, with all the formal copyright restrictions imposed by MD Consult’s parent, Elsevier. Editorials are encouraged in three categories:
- Of a clinical nature;
- Personal or anecdotal interpretations; or
- More conceptual and broad (i.e., about the "science of medicine" and the state of the medical profession in the past, present, and future).
The label “Student Union” is a bit of a misnomer, since campus unions are usually meeting and greeting places for students. Without a section for communication, MD Consult’s Student Union is just another advice & resources site – recipes for success, self-testing, things to buy, and a little practical advice thrown in for good measure.
Related Links:
