Our rotation schedules came out today and unless you’re a
fellow MSII, you probably don’t care. In
fact, you may be thinking, “Listen Red, it won’t matter in the end. I am a doctor and I am telling you that it
does not matter.” If this is what you’re
thinking, it’s fine, because 1. I don’t believe you and 2. This has been one of the only opportunities
in medical school to have a say in what happens with my education, so STOP
TRYING TO STEAL MY JOY!
Anyway…
Here is my 3rd year rotation schedule:
Primary Care
Internal Medicine
Psychiatry
Pediatrics
Surgery
Ob/Gyn
With the exception of Psychiatry and Ob/Gyn (which I wish
were switched), that is the exact order that I requested. Woo!
I know that I have a very light fall semester, but you guys,
I have been so tired. Like, scary
tired. And yes, I know that this is
typical for MSII and everyone is stressed, blah blah blah. Does everyone else also have to spend six hour
stretches in bed because they cannot walk from the fatigue?
I did not think so.
(And yes, my Epstein Barr titer was negative. Other suggestions?)
Anyway, I put Primary Care first because I am unsure of how
I’ll be feeling after the Boards. If I’m
totally fine, then woo! Summer vacation
LIVES! If I’m not, that will hopefully
give me a little bit of a break/wiggle room.
See how I like to plan ahead like that?
(Also see how I am obviously insecure about this and feeling a need to
defend my decisions on the internet… *sigh*)
I finally feel like medical school is moving forward!
19 comments:
Thyroid? Tensilon test? Iron studies? (Can think of a few more, but that's just the paranoid EVERYONE HAS BAD DISEASES part of my brain, and I'm trying to quiet that.)
Most likely it's just medicine. I was chronically exhausted and could barely drag myself to class by the end of second year, so you aren't alone.
Congrats on getting a good schedule. While I agree that it probably doesn't make a huge difference with respect to future career/matching/etc., it definitely influences your enjoyment of the year, which is also important. Have fun being a clerk!
Thanks SD! I agree that it does make a difference in your daily disposition and quality of life! RE: exhaustion, my doc did a CBC with some other add-ons and everything was negative. I got super sick with a cold recently, so I didn't follow-up again yet.
I just got my third year schedule too! I think we have things split up into shorter 5 week blocks, but here's mine!
Family Medicine
Psychiatry
Surgery
Ob/Gyn
Elective (woo hoo! I'm hoping anesthesia)
Pediatrics
Rural Medicine
Internal Medicine (which is the length of two blocks)
I'm hoping having medicine right at the end of the year will mean I'll be ready to hit Step 2 hard!
I like your schedule, too, though! I think in the end it's more about how you feel about your schedule and how you feel about the classmates who will be working on teams with you. But that's my guess, obviously I have never done this before. ;)
looks like a good schedule... it's good to have internal med early because it helps for the other shelf exams
Tess- I like your schedule! It looks like you have some good pacing between what should be the easy and hard rotations. Our rotations are 8 weeks each, which is why we have fewer. We do get one elective for two weeks of surgery, though, and I think one for two weeks of primary care.
C- Thanks, I heard through the grapevine that I should try to get Internal first, while it was fresh in my mind from Boards.
What C said about IM. Also, it's good that you have Ob after surgery because you'll probably get to do more.
Any chance you're pregnant?
OMDG- Ooh, nice! I was just happy to have spring break after surgery...haha!
M- ZERO chance that I am pregnant, but I got a good laugh out of your comment :)
What are you thinking about going into?
Cimorne- I'm not sure yet, but I like peds. and ob/gyn so far!
Bless you for liking Peds! I'm glad someone finds joy there :) I'm counting the hours (61.5) until my peds clinical is done and I (hopefully) will never again have to try to maintain composure as a mother lets her 3 children, aged 2,4, and 7 run around the exam room, crawling over chairs, opening drawers, and trying to type on my computer, all while I'm trying to get a good look at the TMs of the screaming infant.
Nope. Peds is NOT for me!
MamaDoodle- Oh, my. Well, we'll see if my opinion changes after I do the actual rotation! I've only worked with a private practice pediatrician as part of my clinical preceptorship. I do like the developmental aspect of peds, but I will admit that the number of well visits and runny noses made it very triage-y. I just have to wait and see, because I know inpatient peds. is going to be very different!
I had the opposite reaction to your post. I saw that it said 3rd year rotation schedule and immediately skipped over other blogs to come see what you'd gotten! CLUTCH schedule!! I can't wait to get to do rotations, so it DOES matter!! Congrats!
Elena- Haha, I guess I was unnecessarily projecting disinterest about the third year schedule. But yes, it is exciting when you finally get there! Real patients, real medicine, woo!
I'll be a MS1 in the fall. Just curious - how do MSII's rank their rotation list? Is it in order of what they would potentially like to go into, or the other way around? Or just random?
Pikl- You usually want to put what you want to go into in a 3rd or later spot, so that you have some experience by the time you get there and don't look like a fool! Other than that, surgery and internal med. have more demanding schedules and call, while psych. and primary care have more regular 9-5ish hours and minimal or no call. Ideally, you schedule your "hard" and "easy" rotations based on what you have going on in life, etc. (E.g.- Try to get an "easy" rotation during the months when your best friend is getting married, so that you'll have the weekend off.) Or, you can try to knock out your "hard" rotations early, so that you can relax at the end of 3rd year. It's really up to you...everyone has their reasons for their order. Unfortunately, most med. schools do a lottery system for rotations, so you might not get exactly what you want. I actually got very lucky, because I got almost the exact schedule that I request. Most people get first choices for at least two rotations, though.
Oh, and congrats on starting med. school! Yay!
I agree with Solitary Diner's partial differential. Others in VINDICATE - I would also ask, "any changes in meds that could cause this? has it happened before?" You prob would have been concerned about cold sweats/strange fevers etc so... prob not anything crazy in the N category. But if it's not infectious, I'm really liking the E - endocrine, everything else.
I've been pretty open that I'm very likely burnt out- all I've done for the past 3 weeks is sleep and surf on the marvelously cavernous interwebs. I'm probably the exception rather than the rule, but do keep burnout and other psych stuff on the list too.
Your 3rd yr is looking solid, so congrats. We had our lottery last week. I'm pumped about MSIII, since there is only warmth and light in that promised land.
And finally (RE last post), it really is a shame that The Lawyer didn't have orange hair back then. Or pigtails for that matter. He totally could've pulled off a guy version of anne of green gables!! That was literally the first thing I thought of when I saw the straw hat in the last post! Good family- there are bound to be more fun pics somewhere...heh.
(and if you're wondering what that would look like, google "anne of green gables hat" - the 4th pic is good!)
Nik- Oh, honey. I love me some Anne of Green Gables, so I don't need to Google, lol! For the fatigue, I don't have any endocrine symptoms, but I didn't rule out just generalized depression, induced by being annoyed and ticked off by med. school. That would not be out of the question. It seems to be fairly transient, though, so that's why I haven't pushed further. I also keep getting just regular colds/viruses, but The Lawyer is getting them too, so it may just be disgusting, germy Metro viruses that are attacking us. I'm keeping my eyes fixed on the promised land (post-Boards) too!
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