The Making of an MD is a multi-story series following a medical school student through training to become a physician. This is Part 2 in the series.
Medical learner Grant Sweeny finishes the in-class portion of his medical degree this week. The student at McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine - Niagara Regional Campus begins a year and a half of rotations on Monday and crosses the halfway point of his studies.
Grant Sweeny isn’t sentimental about wrapping up his in-class learning for his medical degree this week.
The second-year student at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine – Niagara Regional Campus has been waiting for this day since returning to the classroom in September after spending the summer doing pre-clerkship electives.
“I’m very excited,” Sweeny says. “Coming off the summer electives and going back into the classroom was kind of met by disappointment. Being out in the real world doing this stuff is exciting.”
Sweeny is eager to leave the lecture hall behind for the hands-on experience that the next year and a half of clerkship – rotations in hospitals and clinics – will provide the physician-to-be before he graduates in 2026.
“I know personally, I struggle with in-class learning,” he says. “Clerkship will be more work but it will be more enjoyable work for me. I feel a healthy mix of apprehension and nervousness about getting into the thick of things. It would make me nervous if someone wasn’t about it.”
Still, the last three months of coursework have better prepared him what’s ahead as he crosses the halfway point to graduation and gets more involved in patient care during a series of longer rotations in core specialties required for all students, and shorter placements in areas of personal interest.
Sweeny has been diving into how body systems integrate, systemic diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus and cancer, and population health-related topics such as geriatrics and pregnancy.
“It was a good opportunity to go back over the past year and re-learn because sometimes you forget things as you go through (learning) the individual systems like respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological systems,” he explains. “This was really helpful.”
In September 2023, Sweeny was a newly minted medical school student unsure of where he wanted to go in his career. Early on in his pre-clerkship electives over the summer, when he spent two weeks at a time immersed in different specialties, Sweeny leaned toward following in his grandfather’s footsteps and becoming a family physician. Internist and oncologist also ranked high on his list of prospects.
“I realize how much better I feel in a clinical setting. It’s engaging and I’m really interested in what we’re doing. I know others are nervous about it, but it makes me fundamentally more excited than anything."
Grant Sweeny works in the student lounge at the Marotta Family Hospital as he wraps up his last term of in-class work for his medical degree.
Read more of Grant's journey
"We're here to positively impact patients": NRC student
Kidney Fair exposes med school students to career in nephrology
Surgery wasn’t initially on his radar. Then Sweeny got an up-close look at urology and his career path developed a new fork in the road. An elective that was at the bottom of his list moved to the top for offering a mix of clinical work, the opportunity to do smaller procedures and scopes, and time in the operating room doing major surgery, such as kidney removal.
“Internal medicine is still on the radar,” Sweeny says. He hasn’t ruled out the sentimental favourite family medicine, either.
Back in class, he discovered his fellow learners had similar experiences during their rotations.
In addition to tackling more complex coursework, Sweeny had to pass an exam designed to assess his readiness for rotations and the high stakes of supervised clinical placements and patient interactions. A similar evaluation awaits him before his starts his residency.
“Clerkship is when medicine becomes exciting, and students become doctors," says Dr. Rafi Setrak, Niagara Health Academic Lead and Regional Chief of Emergency Medicine. "It is where science meets art, and the astute medical students come to understand that medicine is an equal part of each. Good luck, Grant. See you in the trenches.”
Sweeny looks forward to it. He’ll spend the next two weeks completing a medical oncology elective at Juravinski Hospital in Hamilton.
In January, he’ll return to Niagara for a four-week rotation in obstetrics and gynecology. Armed with his Resident Survival Guide, a pocket-sized reference packed with quick hits about patient conditions, medications and more, Sweeny is eager for the next chapter.
“I realize how much better I feel in a clinical setting. It’s engaging and I’m really interested in what we’re doing. I know others are nervous about it, but it makes me fundamentally more excited than anything,” he says.
“I did expect to feel more dread around rotations but I feel confident in my knowledge, confident in my skills. I know there will be knowledge gaps, but I feel confident about my next steps.”
