Coming back to patient care M3

[mark-ER]

Anyone else having (or has had) hard time coming back to M3 year & patient care? What specifically was hard about it? I nominate:

(1) Forgot everything since USMLE Step I
(2) Whatever clinical skills I had are rustier than my car
(3) All former classmates now chief residents/fellows or worse yet private docs making big money (hence rusty allusion above)
(4) No respect -- getting bossed around, no one even considers your opinion
(5) The regurgitation mentality == no serious questioning of authority and why we do things the way we do things

feel free to add to the list and vent.

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[echod]

Are you thinking about going into ER. If yes, could you explain why?

 

[Neuronix]

Hard24Get is an MD/PhD in ER. She matched and started internship year but is still around on the forums if you want to talk to someone about it.

 

[gbwillner]

Anyone else having (or has had) hard time coming back to M3 year & patient care? What specifically was hard about it? I nominate:

(1) Forgot everything since USMLE Step I
(2) Whatever clinical skills I had are rustier than my car
(3) All former classmates now chief residents/fellows or worse yet private docs making big money (hence rusty allusion above)
(4) No respect -- getting bossed around, no one even considers your opinion
(5) The regurgitation mentality == no serious questioning of authority and why we do things the way we do things

feel free to add to the list and vent.

(1)- It's actually worse than forgetting- everything sounds familiar but you can't put your finger on it. Don't worry though- it's only transient and you'll pick things up again quickly.
(2)- ditto
(3)- use that to your advantage. Your friends will be chiefs, who make the schedules. ask them to put you on a good team/light schedule. You will also be treated differently than everyone else- you won't get looked down upon as much (although I didn't find this to hold on OB/GYN). You might get to go home while on call even.
(4)- on the contrary, I found that I got a lot more respect the second time through. Some people say not to tell anyone you're an MD/PhD. I disagree. Make sure you tell the attendings in a subtle way, like when they pimp you on gastric vasculature say, "I'm sorry I don't remember that- I've been away from clinical medicine for X years doing my PhD so I'm a bit rusty". You will get mad props from attendings who will want you to be interested in their research. I saw that I was definitely treated BETTER than the other students. It probably didn't hurt that I was now 5 years older than the other students, so more mature as well.
(5)- I saw that attendings DID like it when you question WHY we do things or the validity of certain procedures/treatments. As long as you address this in a scientific way. I don't mean questioning why you have to write an H/P when the intern already has one in the chart. OB/GYN aside I didn't think this was so bad as an MD/PhD. But medicine is just that way and you need to live with that.

Good luck!

 

[BusinessAndMedicine]

(4)- on the contrary, I found that I got a lot more respect the second time through. Some people say not to tell anyone you're an MD/PhD. I disagree. Make sure you tell the attendings in a subtle way, like when they pimp you on gastric vasculature say, "I'm sorry I don't remember that- I've been away from clinical medicine for X years doing my PhD so I'm a bit rusty". You will get mad props from attendings who will want you to be interested in their research. I saw that I was definitely treated BETTER than the other students. It probably didn't hurt that I was now 5 years older than the other students, so more mature as well.

Lol...that is the opposite of subtle.