Medical Student Program

The Inpatient rotation is four weeks long and divided into two weeks of Obstetrics and two weeks of Gynecologic Surgery. During the Obstetrics portion, students participate in Labor and Delivery (L&D) and Night Float. During the Gynecologic Surgery portion, students participate in gynecologic surgery cases (both general and subspecialty), gynecology consults, and a Complex Family Planning clinic. 

Obstetrics
For the Obstetrics portion, all students are assigned to Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children’s Labor & Delivery and Postpartum wards. On L&D, students perform the initial evaluation of patients that present to L&D triage, participate in the management of patients in labor and their deliveries, and follow patients postpartum while in the hospital with the attending and resident staff. Students may also participate in the evaluation and management of non-laboring antepartum patients.

All students participate in a Night Float rotation for four consecutive nights, allowing students more opportunities to evaluate and participate in patient care and deliveries, experience working during night hours, understand differences in hospital resources at night versus during the day, and explore whether a residency with a night float schedule may suit them.

Gynecologic Surgery
For the Gynecologic Surgery portion, students are assigned to the Gynecology service at either Hawaii Pacific Health (Kapiolani Medical Center/Pali Momi Medical Center) or The Queen’s Medical Center. Students have the opportunity to participate in General Gynecology, Gynecologic Oncology, Urogynecology, Minimally Invasive Gynecology, and Complex Family Planning surgical cases. Students will be responsible for the evaluation of patients before, during and after surgery, including both routine and emergent surgeries, making postoperative evaluations on a daily basis and participating in gynecology consults. 

Students are assigned to one half-day of Complex Family Planning Clinic, where they will be able to observe the provision of evidence-based, comprehensive reproductive health care and gain clinical experience to support learning specific to the high-yield educational topics of family planning and pregnancy termination. 

In the Outpatient rotation, students are assigned to a preceptor with whom they will work closely for one half day each week and attend OB/GYN outpatient clinics or other clinical experiences. Students can follow their patients throughout the course of their condition and into the hospital for admissions, surgeries, or deliveries.

Approximately 40 faculty members who work in both rural and urban settings serve as outpatient preceptors. Outpatient sites may be located on O‘ahu or on neighbor islands, offering a diverse, immersive educational experience in clinical OB/GYN care across the state of Hawaiʻi. 

Students will develop experience in the operations of an OB/GYN clinic and be able to take a full history and perform a full breast and pelvic exam, i.e., an annual gynecology exam/well-woman exam, on a patient.

Upon completion of the clerkship, students are expected to be proficient in the following:

• Growing as lifelong, self-directed learners
• Understanding and applying foundational knowledge and discovery to the practice of medicine
• Providing patient-centered care that is compassionate, appropriate, and effective for the treatment of health problems and promotion of health in the ambulatory and hospital setting
• Knowing about fundamental diagnoses, management, principles, counseling points, and procedures related to OB/GYN 
• Communicating effectively with patients, families, and other providers in the interdisciplinary healthcare team
• Exhibiting the highest standards of professional and ethical behavior

A four-week-long elective at the Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women & Children Family Birth Center (Labor and Delivery) designed to enable students to take an active role in the management and treatment of patients on Labor and Delivery.

A two- to four-week-long elective at the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children, where the student will gain a better understanding of the sub-specialty of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) through the following objectives:

• Understand the basic science of embryology, the menstrual cycle, anatomy, and physiology as it applies specifically to reproductive endocrinology
• Understand the mechanism, diagnostic evaluation, and first-line therapy for common reproductive endocrine conditions (i.e., female and male infertility, recurrent pregnancy loss, and androgen excess)
• Obtain a complete history from reproductive endocrine patients and understand why they are being asked
• Perform a complete physical exam of the reproductive endocrine patient; explain why each part of the exam is being performed and what abnormalities are being sought
• Observe and assist in common procedures and understand indications for each procedure

A two- to four-week-long elective at the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children, Pali Momi Medical Center, or The Queen’s Medical Center, where the student will gain a better understanding about the subspecialty of Gynecologic Oncology through the following objectives:

• Participate in the diagnosis and management of patients with gynecologic oncologic conditions in the outpatient clinic
• Develop a thorough understanding of female pelvic anatomy
• Learn the basics of gynecologic surgery and participate in operative procedures 
• Round and write progress notes on postoperative patients daily (when you are in the hospital) until discharge
• Understand the management, both surgical and chemotherapeutic, of gynecologic malignancies
• Understand the management of complicated post-operative gynecologic oncology patients