Importance of Med Sub-I for Internship

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vtrain

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I currently have scheduled a pretty slack med sub I (ie carry no patients, show up when you want to, zero responsibility,etc). However, I am doing a pre-lim medicine year and I was thinking about changing it for a more rigorous one to better prepare me - what do you guys think? Everyone says enjoy your 4th year, slack off when you can, etc. but I'm worried that I'll be grossly under prepared and I figure a good med sub I will help transition me better into my pre-lim medicine internship. Should I switch into a subI that's more challenging, or enjoy the free time I'll have at the sub I that I'm already in? Thanks!

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I currently have scheduled a pretty slack med sub I (ie carry no patients, show up when you want to, zero responsibility,etc). However, I am doing a pre-lim medicine year and I was thinking about changing it for a more rigorous one to better prepare me - what do you guys think? Everyone says enjoy your 4th year, slack off when you can, etc. but I'm worried that I'll be grossly under prepared and I figure a good med sub I will help transition me better into my pre-lim medicine internship. Should I switch into a subI that's more challenging, or enjoy the free time I'll have at the sub I that I'm already in? Thanks!

Who's to say you can't make the one you have more intense. Pick up more pts, show up earlier, get good A/P's going. Just change your mindset.
 
How is that considered a sub-I? I thought you were supposed to function like an intern? (And that's part of the whole purpose of a sub-I - to prepare yourself for internship, and to show others you can handle the workload.)

I'd definitely do what McSnappy recommended and pick up more work. Show up when you want to? Nope. :)
 
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What they said.

There is slacking off, then there is SLACKING off.

I am on a Cards consult month... I'm slacking off, but I still get here before the fellow, write notes on majority of the patients, try to see people before he does, and review EKGs and other 'heart' issuses while I have someone good to bounce questions off of.

With that said, I get here at 9... usually go off campus for lunch... and asked for a few days off.... and spend hours browing the net.

So there is a balance that you can come to...

SLACKING off was my optho rotation as an MS4. I showed up about 4-5 days (read as afternoons) for the entire month. I used the fancy slit lamp and optical things they use a few times and that was enough for me.
 
No, slacking off was me during my Rads elective - show up around 10 am, read a few x-rays one day, CTs the next - leave after the free catered lunch. 3-4 days a week. Nice! :thumbup:
 
schedule your sub-i early in your 4th year, when you're more likely to still be motivated. after that, you can, hopefully, coast through 4th year. it may be hard to switch gears, imo, if you schedule it later in the year.

No, slacking off was me during my Rads elective - show up around 10 am, read a few x-rays one day, CTs the next - leave after the free catered lunch. 3-4 days a week. Nice! :thumbup:

my rads elective was show up at 1 to 2 pm, talk football with the radiology fellow, look at a few nuclear studies, head out at 3 or 330!
 
my rads elective was show up at 1 to 2 pm, talk football with the radiology fellow, look at a few nuclear studies, head out at 3 or 330!

Nice! :thumbup:

I never got to look at nuclear studies. Just x-rays and CTs for me! No ultrasounds, MRIs, PETs, etc. :)
 
Wow, I never had one rotation like that. Ex. My nephro rotation started each morning around 6 AM. Usually it started with rounds in the ICU. One morning it was in the ER, but somehow I got the message wrong - so I did not find him until about 6:30. Got a major *** chewing. A couple of days I left early around 3. I did cardiology at Arizona Heart Institute. It was an hour to an hour and a half drive, started 6:30. I was 15 minutes late one day and got *** chewing. The last week of my rotation there I rotated with a DO from Midwestern. When my preceptor asked her what time she wanted to start I could not keep from loudly saying "what the hell. You are asking her what time she wants to start?".

During one surgical rotation, the preceptor at the beginning of the month said it was going to be an easy slack month. It was December. I only had one day off and it was Christmas day, and only because I did not answer my page when they paged me.
 
My Pediatric Community Medicine elective was very chill. Came in at about 9, saw patients for about a few hours, went to lunch at about noon, then went home for the rest of the day.
 
Wow, I never had one rotation like that. Ex. My nephro rotation started each morning around 6 AM. Usually it started with rounds in the ICU. One morning it was in the ER, but somehow I got the message wrong - so I did not find him until about 6:30. Got a major *** chewing. A couple of days I left early around 3. I did cardiology at Arizona Heart Institute. It was an hour to an hour and a half drive, started 6:30. I was 15 minutes late one day and got *** chewing. The last week of my rotation there I rotated with a DO from Midwestern. When my preceptor asked her what time she wanted to start I could not keep from loudly saying "what the hell. You are asking her what time she wants to start?".

During one surgical rotation, the preceptor at the beginning of the month said it was going to be an easy slack month. It was December. I only had one day off and it was Christmas day, and only because I did not answer my page when they paged me.

Yeah, the "normal" rotations are always tough. I also did a Nephrology elective - it was my first (July) rotation as an MS-IV. I spent 1 1/2 days during each of the first two weekends to prepare for Step 2 CK.

Then the sub-Is and SICU rotation were brutal. But after all the interviewing during December and January? Ah, cruise city!
 
To the OP, this is a little too late to matter, but for others reading this thread for reference... I did both a medicine sub-I and an ICU sub-I during my fourth year and I am extremely happy I completed those months.
I was forced to work VERY hard both months, and I was treated EXACTLY like the interns. Not only did I learn alot, but it gave me some confidence for starting residency. Each one of my seniors at the time told me I was doing an excellent job keeping up with the work and even doing a better job than some of the interns. I'm not posting this to brag, but to show how helpful a sub-I can be. Hearing my senior brag about me to his classmates like that gave me the confidence I needed to know that I'll be just fine during internship year (but I'm still scared ****less!!)
 
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