:mad: I'd like some advice

Im finishing up my third year of med school right now in the midwest. I did well in all of my clinical rotations, OK on step I and boards. Unfortunately, during my last month in surgery I got sick with pneumonia, and missed 4 days. I went to the Hospital, etc.

Got no love from the surgery department, however, and they say I need to repeat a month. No professionalism/etc issues here. Evals are all fine. Please let me know how much this is going to hurt as far as interviews, etc. Input from residents/program directors/etc. appreciated.

I worked my a** off during this rotation, and that's why I got sick. . What do I write on my personal statement so that program directors don't think Im some pushover who cant take the rigors of residency and at hte same time dont sound like a surgery hater (I am btw). By the way, my internal med evaluations are pretty great.

Thanks

InternalRocks

:laugh::laugh::laugh:
Typical surgeons.
I would make this a 2-liner in your IM application personal statement. "Due to having missed 4 days of my 3rd year surgical clerkship while hospitalized with bacterial pneumonia, I also completed an extra month of surgical clerkship". I wouldn't worry about this. It is unlikely to hurt you much at all for IM unless one of the surgeons said something nasty about you that makes it into your dean's letter. LOL. I'll bet you go to my medical school. I could totally see the surgeons there pulling something like that. Why didn't they just let you do an extra weekend @the end of the clerkship, or extra week later in 4th year, and not even put anything in your transcript? Dorks.

Don't worry. A lot of IM attendings hated their surgical clerkship, too. They/you will probably get a good laugh out of it during your residency interviews.

keep the responses coming ! Thanks

1. Does it have to be a straight Gen Surg rotation? Otherwise, try to get a SICU month.

2. If it does have to be surg, consider one of the more complex services (abdominal transplant for example, if available at your center). Then it will just appear like you wanted to do it.


3. Can you move it later in the year?

I second the notion of getting a rotation in the SICU. Another option would be working in the trauma ICU if your hospital has one. This will help you out a good bit with learning the management of the sickest patients with multiple problems, as well as general ICU management (Vents, lines, etc.)

I second the notion of getting a rotation in the SICU. Another option would be working in the trauma ICU if your hospital has one. This will help you out a good bit with learning the management of the sickest patients with multiple problems, as well as general ICU management (Vents, lines, etc.)

And I "first" the notion of telling the surgery dept to suck it.

Seriously?! You missed 4 days, while hospitalized and they want you to repeat a whole month? Isn't the rule in surgery that if you're not in the hospital, you better be IN the hospital? Well...you were. Bring your d/c summary to your disciplinary hearing.

Bring your dean in on this one because this is a total load of horse$h!t. I can almost agree with them having you make up those 4 days (tell them you'd be happy to make up 4 post-call days) but an entire month is just them being a bunch of insecure d-bags.

Of course, this being the intertron, you're probably not telling the whole story. But if you are, if you pay for the plane ticket and the hotel room, I'll happily come out and punch the Surgery clerkship director at your site in the junk for this.

medicine can be very backstabbing sometimes. I remember missing 4-5 days because of 3 bleeding stomach ulcers (4-5 hematemesis episodes after coming from a short call--> pretty scare sh$t) that developed while on my medicine rotation because of motrin use. My H and H went down to 6.8 and i felt like crap (fatigue, weak etc). when i came back I gave all the papers to my attending even the ones with pictures from the endoscopy. He told me to suck it up and gave me a very crappy evaluation because of that week that 4-5 days that I missed. thankfully my IM department director + chief resident from the IM program talked to him and he wrote a second one.

In other words, it sucks. I dont think its going to matter in your IM pursuit. tal

I had a co-intern in the MICU rotation whose sister was out of state in the MICU and was critically ill, and the attendings and our PD wouldn't let her skip a day and go see her sister. She even had another intern who had offered to cover for her. Medicine sucks sometimes.

OP, is this extra month going to go on your transcript or something? I mean, is it going to show up that you had to remediate or something? If not, I'd just suck it up and do the extra month. Personally I wouldn't go for the SICU until later in the year, when grades don't matter. I'd worry more about your subI in medicine, etc. where it will actually matter that you do well. You just want to do the least painful surgical rotation you can, in terms of the attendings and house staff you'll encounter...the SICU that is full of stressed-out, beginning of the year surgical interns wouldn't be @the top of my list.

Thanks for the posts,

Essentially this surgery rotation was the most malignant rotation you can imagine. 13 days of nonstop work (no days off), two nights of call, during my second month of surgery (in December). Cold weather, lack of sleep, I just got sick. Spent 4 days in the hosp.

Unfortunately, I told the course director, who told my resident, that I was raising hell. That got me in trouble with the resident. It also didn't help that his crush, a first year nursing student on the wards had a thing for me and turned him down on the same rotation.

So that month I had essentially 7 days off in total. That was just unacceptable to the surgeons. Unfortunately it will go on my record that it will be "Safisfactory after completion of additional month in surgery." Yeah, it completely sucks, but this has been a HUGE battle and Im tired of fighting it. I have just come to the conclusion that if I had to go through a surgery residency I would hate myself and everyone I worked with too. I'm gonna try for the SICU.

Anyone else have a story like this?

Anyone else have a story like this?

Like Dragon, my first thought was, typical surgeons. This **** is unfortunately way too common.

The call schedule and days off, etc. don't sound that bad...sounds kind of typical for my med school,and to some extent my IM residency (sometimes have to go a couple weeks w/no day off). However, it's probably excessive work hours for a MSIII (though not uncommon) and the behavior of the folks you worked with sounds unacceptable. I still wonder if the OP goes to my former med school :D

I would advise that if this is going to go on your transcript and/or dean's letter then you need to explain it in your application for residency, likely in the personal statement. But I would make it a one or two liner. If you aren't applying for surgery, then it's unlikely to hurt you much. But I think that you should defend yourself, without seeming too defensive/antagonistic about the whole situation. Just explain in a matter of fact way that you were out 4 days with pneumonia and therefore had to repeat a month. A fair number of internists don't get on that well w/surgeons (and vice versa) so the IM docs who interview you likely won't care about this, unless you appear to have a pattern of weak/slacker behavior.