Ob/Gyn rotation

[Rod Farva]

Is this generally considered the worst rotation? I am miserable right now... I've pretty much had the worst 2 weeks of my life, with 4 to go. I'm wondering if anyone actually liked this rotation... I'd have to say that while on my Ob/Gyn rotation, every day has been the worst day of my life.... each worse than the day before it. Why can't people not get pregnant, or if they do, not deliver while I'm on call? Is that too much to ask?

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[doc05]

obgyn is the worst rotation for just about everyone...don't worry, it will soon be over.

 

[starayamoskva]

Is this generally considered the worst rotation? I am miserable right now... I've pretty much had the worst 2 weeks of my life, with 4 to go. I'm wondering if anyone actually liked this rotation... I'd have to say that while on my Ob/Gyn rotation, every day has been the worst day of my life.... each worse than the day before it. Why can't people not get pregnant, or if they do, not deliver while I'm on call? Is that too much to ask?

Now you know how I felt on Internal Medicine, only that hell last for 12 Weeks. IF I never see an old man with a decubiti again it will be too freaking soon!! And please please explain to me why you need to have 75 differential diagnosis for a simple cellulitis. And why oh why please tell me why they can't call the surgeon for their patients abcess on day 1 rather than treating them with IV antibiotics for 7 days and then calling?

 

[kcrd]

I agree with staraya. IM is sheer torture. I loved OB Gyn.

 

[supercut]

In my experience most people hated their OB/GYN rotation. Those that don't hate it tend to love it and wind up going into it. THe main reason most people hate it is complaints about the residents being mean. This was true at my med school, and is also true when I compare note with my now fellow residents.

Hang in there. I think everyone has at least one rotation they hate.

 

[chicamedica]

True indeed. . .I loved all my rotations 3rd year, EXCEPT ob/gyn. And I tried to like it , I really did. There were even a couple of sweet residents I worked with (only a couple though. . .). There rest of the residents, and esp the attendings were either mean or passive aggressive.

Not to mention, make sure to keep your mouth shut on this rotation unless you have some tidbit of knowledge you'd like to show off, b/c they see "asking questions" as being "slow to understand". Yeah. . .I still don't get this philosophy. . .

 

[Rod Farva]

Yep, my day sucked again.

 

[Al Pacino]

Ob GYN SUCKS BIG TIME. That was the worst rotation of my life -- bar none. The residents are overworked, running on adrenaline, and are rude and impatient. Where I rotated, for EVERY delivery, I had a different attending.

Some attendings wanted you to do everything -- clamp the cord, cut the cord, etc-- even though you've never done it before. I had a scary moment when in my moment of inexperience, I couldn't clamp the umbilical cord. I just couldn't do it with ONE hand. I felt bad because I was assisting a resident delivery and the attending scolded the resident for letting a medical student do that. I felt awful for letting myself and the resident down.

Other attendings give you dirty looks when they know a medical student is going to in on the delivery. I had one attending who lectured to me that medical students DON'T scrub in on deliveries. Umm, hello, I've scrubbed in on 99% of the deliveries even though I don't do anything but help clean post delivery.

I could go on, but I'm just glad that rotation is over...

 

[labangel]

Ditto....I HATE ob/gyn. It's torture. Even doing a delivery that everyone says is the one thing you remember, I just didn't enjoy it. Last rotation I had was awesome...the residents and attendings were so nice and really helpful. Now, I feel like I'm surrounded by a bunch of mean, rude, self-centered people. With the exception of a couple of residents/interns (who aren't even ob/gyn, but fam med), I'd have wanted to hurt someone long ago. Yes, hours are long, but being a b**ch isn't going to make it go by any faster...

 

[doc05]

exactly. there is nothing wonderful about birth. it's utterly disgusting. the obgyns are just trying to feel better about themselves...

 

[realruby2000]

one attending at my school called the other one a "dick head" for stealing his U/S machine...

 

[tom_jones]

exactly. there is nothing wonderful about birth. it's utterly disgusting. the obgyns are just trying to feel better about themselves...

Indeed. It is the worst clerkship by far. OB/GYNS are busy all day being jealous of surgeons, catfighting with each other, and treating PMS in the clinic. What is the dose of Midol again?

 

[moo]

I hate ob/gyn too... Although I must say the (mostly male) attendings are much nicer than the (mostly female) residents. God, my resident makes me feel so dumb too... Sometimes I wonder whether I can actually survive this... only three more weeks to go...argh

 

[GeneGoddess]

Weird. I loved my OB/Gyn rotation (at a county hospital, no less). Everyone was nice, friendly, and generally excited about both obstetrics and gynecology. And most of my classmates enjoyed it as well. And I'm NOT going into OB/Gyn (though I considered it). I think it was my second fav (behind Pedi, which is my choice). I disliked some parts of medicine (ANOTHER NIDDM, smoker, s/p CABGx3) and hated most of the surgeons I met (though I liked the surgery part - just hated the obnoxious surgeons I met).

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Weird. I loved my OB/Gyn rotation (at a county hospital, no less). Everyone was nice, friendly, and generally excited about both obstetrics and gynecology. And most of my classmates enjoyed it as well. And I'm NOT going into OB/Gyn (though I considered it). I think it was my second fav (behind Pedi, which is my choice). I disliked some parts of medicine (ANOTHER NIDDM, smoker, s/p CABGx3) and hated most of the surgeons I met (though I liked the surgery part - just hated the obnoxious surgeons I met).

OB/GYN for me was 50%/50%. OB sucked...we weren't allowed to hide. And the residents loved to boss us around...we had to write all their progress notes in the morning...absolute scut crap. GYN on the other hand wasn't bad. that's because I hid all the time. If they don't see me and they don't know my pager number they can't scut me out. It worked out great!

Infernal Medicine by far was the worst. Long hours...long notes...long rounds...long everything. Just sheer and utter pain! The worst 12 weeks of my life.

 

[chicamedica]

I hate ob/gyn too... Although I must say the (mostly male) attendings are much nicer than the (mostly female) residents. God, my resident makes me feel so dumb too... Sometimes I wonder whether I can actually survive this... only three more weeks to go...argh

OMG, now that you mention this, I realize this was totally true during my rotation too! Well, I mean the male attendings were much nicer (and more about teaching) than the female attendings. The residents I worked with were all female. some of them were nice, some mean--it was a mix.

I just wish the male attendings were the ones officially grading me. I got stuck with all female attendings.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

OMG, now that you mention this, I realize this was totally true during my rotation too! Well, I mean the male attendings were much nicer (and more about teaching) than the female attendings. The residents I worked with were all female. some of them were nice, some mean--it was a mix.

I just wish the male attendings were the ones officially grading me. I got stuck with all female attendings.

The interesting thing I found was that 99% of the residents at the hospital I was at (Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, MI) were female. Most of the attendings however were male. All of them were trying to sell OB/GYN as a career to me...they were telling me that if you're a male applying to OB/GYN, you can go anywhere! Of course, their perspective was skewed...they had 15 female residents and the lone male resident who was pissed off and bitter and none of the other residents liked him (he had his issues though).

 

[fourthyearmed]

OB was the worst 8 weeks of my life! I think you either love it or hate it - there is no in between like for some of the other rotations.

 

[MD'05]

I hate OB and I hate Gyn. For me the delivering babies is great, the subject matter is great, even the surgeries are great. What I hate are the personalities. I thought surgeons would be miserable bastards. Surgeons are angels compared to the purely evil OB/Gyn folks. I have never met a more miserable bunch of people. Purely evil and hateful. I cringe at the thought of having to do a rotation again as a resident through OB or Gyn. Those bastards scarred me for life.

 

[tom_jones]

Most of the attendings however were male. All of them were trying to sell OB/GYN as a career to me...they were telling me that if you're a male applying to OB/GYN, you can go anywhere!

Wow, I better switch to Obgyn then, if I can go anywhere. The reason you can go anywhere is that no one likes this field. It is probably one of the least competitive residencies.

One of our ******* gyn attendings saw me when I was doing anesthesia rotation and said "I bet you miss being on this side of the cutain". Then she went back to the surgery where her face was 2 feet away from a 300+ pound ladies vag. I could not stop laughing the rest of the case

 

[gwyn779]

I hate OB and I hate Gyn. For me the delivering babies is great, the subject matter is great, even the surgeries are great. What I hate are the personalities. I thought surgeons would be miserable bastards. Surgeons are angels compared to the purely evil OB/Gyn folks. I have never met a more miserable bunch of people. Purely evil and hateful. I cringe at the thought of having to do a rotation again as a resident through OB or Gyn. Those bastards scarred me for life.

I actually liked my OB/Gyn rotation. I agree that the residents tend to be petty and back-stabbing, but I still really enjoyed it. Actually, right now I'm doing inpatient Family Med which includes their OB patients, which is really cool. All the good parts of OB combined with really nice, helpful residents. I even got to suture 2nd degree lacs earlier this week.

I hated surgery, esp. the personalities in surgery, much more.

 

[rubyness]

I hate OB and I hate Gyn. For me the delivering babies is great, the subject matter is great, even the surgeries are great. What I hate are the personalities. I thought surgeons would be miserable bastards. Surgeons are angels compared to the purely evil OB/Gyn folks. I have never met a more miserable bunch of people. Purely evil and hateful. I cringe at the thought of having to do a rotation again as a resident through OB or Gyn. Those bastards scarred me for life.

I could not agree more wholehartedly with this statement!! It was my experience to a T!!!

 

[Gauss]

Every day while on ob/gyn I thought about dropping out of med school, I obsessed about it.
The only thing that saved me was the fact that most of the in house attendings were male and understood what a male med student knew and was comfortable with.
The residents were bitches, the other attendings were dinguses, a few nurses treated us like **** - why don't you want to help deliver (at 3am) it's your education?, and even the anesthesiologist chewed me out for not suctioning the smoke coming off the bovie.
The future of that field is dismal

 

[IV Doc]

it is so nice being a 4th year student and not caring what other residents/attendingds think. I go up to attendings who I would never speak to as a third year and ask them any thing I want to because what can they do if they don't like me. It is great being a 4th year.

 

[PACtoDOC]

I am on my last week of OBGYN, and I have loved it!! But I can clearly see why someone would not want to go into it. The personality issues at my school have been minor at worst, with a few cat fights among the 99% female residents, but I found that funny as hell. In fact, I have decided that I am going to go into OBGYN, especially since the pendulum is at about as far extreme as possible right now. I am male, with pretty damn good scores 232/92, so I am going to use this opportunity to get into a top program that is not one of the more malignant ones....where they have a strong night float system and a great call schedule (Yes these places exist...BaylorCOM, Loyola. etc...). The mix of surgery, clinic, OB, and 2AM stat ruptured tubals gives more diversity than any other field of medicine. Continuity of care long term is also a cool deal in this specialty. And honestly, I think it will be rather fun to be one of the only males among women residents, because everyone knows that the lone male always plays the good guy among the constant cat fights. Let them hate each other as I smile and never take sides!! Plus, the male attendings love a male OBGYN resident because they get sick of working with only women. And lastly, how can you argue with the pay? Average nationwide is about 250K, which for one extra year nearly doubles the average FP salary. I am sorry you guys had such a crappy experience on your rotation, but I can promise you that I will be one of those OBGYN residents that teaches, gets the students involved and helps nurture any desire they might have to do OBGYN.

 

[MD'05]

God bless you PACTODOC! I sincerely wish you much future success.

I seriously have PTSD from the OB/GYN experience.

 

[MediCane2006]

I seriously have PTSD from the OB/GYN experience.

I never knew what happiness was until I finished that rotation. Only problem was, I wasted my whole weekend just sitting on the couch with this little smile on my face, because I was too physically/mentally exhausted to even contemplate celebrating. I think this is some sort of weird rite of passage that the med school powers-that-be devise as the final "weed-out" of our education. Seriously - it's not possible for a field to truly be this miserable, otherwise there would be NO ONE going into Ob-Gyn.

 

[alisepeep]

my obgyn attending was a bitch like no other, talking shieeet bout patients behind their backs, being extremely shallow and petty. God forbid having colleagues like that.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Wow epic ten-year bump!

For what it's worth I actually enjoyed my OB/GYN rotation.

For me peds was the worst and it wasn't due to the parents, although they were a special brand of Hell themselves. I've never met such a passive aggressive group of people as those peds attendings and residents.

 

[Top Gun]

Funny thing is, I actually considered OB/Gyn until I did my rotation in it. Most of the residents, both male and female, seemed to think that teaching was synonymous with yelling at med students, and acted like you were the dumbest person on the planet if you asked a question or if it was your first time doing something, and you were having trouble with it. One resident was even reluctant to allow me to use the doppler during clinic, claiming, "Its such a HUUUUGE responsibility!" Never mind the fact that I had done it successfully with other residents before. The nurses were also catty, and would talks &#it behind your back. One time I asked a question, and she said, "If you don't know by now, you've got a problem." F&*k you bitch. Also, the chairman was a downright bastard as well. He would make the residents' lives miserable and, if you were a timid med student, would claim that you had some psychiatric issue and needed further evaluation. If the residents were still around, I would consider going back and saying, "Screw you a$$holes and bitches. I'm a successful attending now, no thanks to any of you."

 

[MerickManual]

OB/GYN for me was 50%/50%. OB sucked...we weren't allowed to hide. And the residents loved to boss us around...we had to write all their progress notes in the morning...absolute scut crap. GYN on the other hand wasn't bad. that's because I hid all the time. If they don't see me and they don't know my pager number they can't scut me out. It worked out great!

Infernal Medicine by far was the worst. Long hours...long notes...long rounds...long everything. Just sheer and utter pain! The worst 12 weeks of my life.

OMG. Why haven't I thought about that before? That is classic!!!

 

[SLC]

I actually kinda liked my OBGyn rotation. Awesome preceptor, chill practice, cool patients who didn't mind having a student do the work.

Bunch of deliveries, good mix of surgery and clinic, and I didn't even mind annual exams and other ransoms Gyn office stuff.

The only thing keeping me away is the schedule, it was murder on me and my family and I think it was a pretty light 6 weeks for my preceptor at that.

 

[mercaptovizadeh]

Infernal medicine....nice

I actually liked ob/gyn. Delivering a baby was the most special experience in medical school. But I couldn't stand how everything was so....pelvic. Know what I mean?

 

[styphon]

Is this generally considered the worst rotation? I am miserable right now... I've pretty much had the worst 2 weeks of my life, with 4 to go. I'm wondering if anyone actually liked this rotation... I'd have to say that while on my Ob/Gyn rotation, every day has been the worst day of my life.... each worse than the day before it. Why can't people not get pregnant, or if they do, not deliver while I'm on call? Is that too much to ask?

I loved my OB/GYN rotation...I even did a SubI in OB/GYN and then an additional elective on Maternal Fetal Medicine - I struggled between choosing OB/GYN and Family med.

The residents are kind of rough (I think this is common in most OB/GYN programs) but once they know you are interested and aren't demissive of their field the tend to get nicer (Not all of them, some are just mean regardless).

 

[VisionaryTics]

I enjoyed my ob/gyn rotation. The residents were great (I was at a tight-knit community program), I got to do a ton.

I did 3 weeks of L&D, which I mostly spent scrubbing in for c-sections since vaginal childbirth really didn't do it for me. I enjoyed seeing patients down in triage, figuring out what was going on, and either sending them home or admitting them. I also did 3 weeks of gyne, which was 3 straight weeks in the OR, which I enjoyed.

The residents were rough and no-bull****, but they were nice as long as you weren't a jackass. I worked hard, knew my ****, knew my patients, and they reciprocated by letting me do a ton.

Still, I heard horror stories from the students who did their rotation at the university hospital. One of the young attendings at my site who did residency at the university hospital still had PTSD from it, I think.

 

[laboholic]

I enjoyed my Ob/Gyn rotation a LOT! I worked with a doctor in private practice so I didn't have any residents, but the patients were great and very appreciative. For the most part, it seems like a very happy specialty. Even after hours of pain in labor, the women are still all smiles after the baby comes out. The whole family wants to shake your hand and take pictures with you! The residents I met at the hospital seemed just like any other residents.. tired, but nothing like the horror stories that I have read about on this forum...

I can't help but wonder if the new work hours are starting to change the resident attitudes for the better? It seems that most of the horror ObGyn stories on this site were posted back in 2000-2004. Thoughts?

 

[MerickManual]

I enjoyed my Ob/Gyn rotation a LOT! I worked with a doctor in private practice so I didn't have any residents, but the patients were great and very appreciative. For the most part, it seems like a very happy specialty. Even after hours of pain in labor, the women are still all smiles after the baby comes out. The whole family wants to shake your hand and take pictures with you! The residents I met at the hospital seemed just like any other residents.. tired, but nothing like the horror stories that I have read about on this forum...

I can't help but wonder if the new work hours are starting to change the resident attitudes for the better? It seems that most of the horror ObGyn stories on this site were posted back in 2000-2004. Thoughts?

I think your perspective is because you worked mostly with a private doc.

 

[scummie]

For me, ob/gyn alternated between periods of "OMG baby fever!!" to "I am never going to have sex again if this is what happens."

In the end, glad its over. Would not repeat for less than a free year of tuition.

 

[Stellar Clouds]

Quotes from my OB-GYN attending:

"Your knowledge base is lacking. Go back and read Guyton and Hall."

"They (attending docs) are going to corner you, yell, embrass you in front of everybody, and make you feel this little if you don't know EVERYTHING about the patient when you become a house officer."

"Don't let anybody see you cry. Go cry in the locker room."

"Use the clamps with one hand! Few minutes later...."Did you have surgery before this rotation?"

"If you put the speculum in her rectum, that'll be the last time."

With that kind of environment, who wouldn't want to go into OB/GYN?

 

[JoshSt]

"If you put the speculum in her rectum, that'll be the last time."

Yeah.... We had someone do this. Pelvic exam, full exposure, oops - wrong hole.

They didn't catch it nor did the patient (the patient didn't know any better and was in extreme agony). The attending wasn't paying attention until they were about to do the swabs.

 

[Top Gun]

Yeah.... We had someone do this. Pelvic exam, full exposure, oops - wrong hole.

They didn't catch it nor did the patient (the patient didn't know any better and was in extreme agony). The attending wasn't paying attention until they were about to do the swabs.

Yikes! What happened with the student?

 

[JoshSt]

Yikes! What happened with the student?

Nothing, the attending wasn't mad, just calmly corrected - turned into a funny story. They did learn a valuable lesson in female anatomy.

 

[DermViser]

Quotes from my OB-GYN attending:

"Your knowledge base is lacking. Go back and read Guyton and Hall."

"They (attending docs) are going to corner you, yell, embrass you in front of everybody, and make you feel this little if you don't know EVERYTHING about the patient when you become a house officer."

"Don't let anybody see you cry. Go cry in the locker room."

"Use the clamps with one hand! Few minutes later...."Did you have surgery before this rotation?"

"If you put the speculum in her rectum, that'll be the last time."

Except for the last one, which medical school is this at? This is terrible.

 

[Siggy]

Yeah.... We had someone do this. Pelvic exam, full exposure, oops - wrong hole.

They didn't catch it nor did the patient (the patient didn't know any better and was in extreme agony). The attending wasn't paying attention until they were about to do the swabs.

Maybe I'm doing my speculum exams wrong, but I generally adjust until the cervix is in view. Was the student all like, "The cave just keeps going... aww screw this, give me the swab"?

 

[Siggy]

"Don't let anybody see you cry. Go cry in the locker room."

...and then discount Tom Hanks says "There's no crying in baseball medicine."

 

[JoshSt]

Maybe I'm doing my speculum exams wrong, but I generally adjust until the cervix is in view. Was the student all like, "The cave just keeps going... aww screw this, give me the swab"?

Lol, I do wish I knew what they were thinking.

 

[MerickManual]

Lol, I do wish I knew what they were thinking.

Probably something along the lines of "man, didn't know vaginas smelt this bad!"

 

[Indianarn]

Enjoyed reading all the stories. I am going to be OMS1 this fall and like OB/GYN. How? well I am an RN and done some rotations during the nursing school in OB. Never was able to get a job there as an RN; well, I happen to be a male. Anyhow, would love some advice about what to do from the first day in school. Thanks all.

 

[Brain Bucket]

Quotes from my OB-GYN attending:

"Your knowledge base is lacking. Go back and read Guyton and Hall."

"They (attending docs) are going to corner you, yell, embrass you in front of everybody, and make you feel this little if you don't know EVERYTHING about the patient when you become a house officer."

"Don't let anybody see you cry. Go cry in the locker room."

"Use the clamps with one hand! Few minutes later...."Did you have surgery before this rotation?"

"If you put the speculum in her rectum, that'll be the last time."

 

[Nasrudin]

Quotes from my OB-GYN attending:

"Your knowledge base is lacking. Go back and read Guyton and Hall."

"They (attending docs) are going to corner you, yell, embrass you in front of everybody, and make you feel this little if you don't know EVERYTHING about the patient when you become a house officer."

"Don't let anybody see you cry. Go cry in the locker room."

"Use the clamps with one hand! Few minutes later...."Did you have surgery before this rotation?"

"If you put the speculum in her rectum, that'll be the last time."

I don't see the problem here. There's some humor there. Certainly nothing that surprises me. And yes, unless it's because of a patient and or their family, if you're going to cry in medicine because of your interactions with a superior you should go find a quiet corner alone to do it.

OB sucks. But it'll be over soon. And you held a warm slippery wet baby during in its first few seconds of life. Or the gruesome reality of metastatic abdominal cancer. Not many people get to experience these things.