3rd year energy drain

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Doctor Bagel

Doctor Bagel

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Anybody else there? I was all enthusiastic at the start and able to deal with long hours in things I'm not interested in doing, but it's gone. I'm finishing up my rotation in what I've discovered I really do want to do, and all my following rotations are freaking hard (yeah, peds is hard at my school) and in stuff I really know I have little interest in. I'm thinking it's going to be a long haul until June.

Just venting and missing basic sciences with all its sleeping late glory and things like spring break to look forward to.
 
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Doctor Bagel said:
Anybody else there? I was all enthusiastic at the start and able to deal with long hours in things I'm not interested in doing, but it's gone. I'm finishing up my rotation and what I've discovered I really do want to do, and all my following rotations are freaking hard (yeah, peds is hard at my school) and in stuff I really know I have little interest in. I'm thinking it's going to be a long haul until June.

Just venting and missing basics sciences with all its sleeping late glory and things like spring break to look forward to.
Click to expand...

All specialty/career preference differences aside, I absolutely do feel your pain.

When I have to listen to the umteenth psych patient of the day whine for 45 minutes about their depression and their crappy life, I end being the one with suicidal AND homicidal ideations. I want this rotation and year to end so bad I can almost taste the sweetness of 4th year.

I noticed you have a selective in your 3rd year countdown. I do too towards the middle of spring, an extra 3 weeks of surgery 😍 --and i see it as my saving grace. Hopefully you get to do something you are interested in during your selective and that will be enough to catapult you through the rest of the year. That is my plan. Hang in there.

In the immortal words of Bon Jovi......Ohhhhhhh we're half way theeeerre..(actually more than 1/2) 👍
 
I second that emotion. The remainder of my year is stuff I'm not remotely interested in (OB-GYN, Surg). I just want to hurry up and get to next year so I can do more Neuro. I'm actually looking forward to residency (internship, maybe not so much) so I can start doing what I love. This stuff in between is interesting enough I guess, and I know that we have to jump through the hoops and acquire a passing knowledge of the different specialties, but I am having a hard time getting excited about the prospect of lots of Pap smears or standing around watching other people do stuff (surgery).
 
I'm there. (like the commercial)

I'm on my psychiatry rotation, pretty much 8-3, no hard work, and I'm finding it to be practically intolerable. I'm impatient, irritated, and bored probably 90% of the time, especially later in the day. My running internal dialogue pretty much goes "why are we working so slowly? Why are we just standing here chit-chatting? WHY don't we actually get our WORK DONE so we can get the HEL* out of HERE???!!!:laugh:

It's bad.

And although I normally consider myself a moderately patient person, lately I even wonder to myself why patients talk so slowly. Everything is getting on my nerves. Not to mention I haven't studied at all.

I'm actually excited to start surgery because I'm ready to have some motivation to work- and not at a snail's pace. And the only way to get motivated I'm afraid, is to get my arse handed to me 😛
 
My selective is radiology, which I'm not too horribly excited about. I'm hoping it's pretty cush, but it's only 2 weeks. Yeah, I too am regretting putting some of the heavier stuff towards the end of my year. I kind of missed that peds and neuro were actually hard here, so I thought I'd have a relatively calm spring until surgery hit.
 
I too felt the drain, especially towards the end of 2008 when I was still on my (neverending) medicine rotation.

...and then I started surgery. I began life anew 🙂

I'm sure I'll still feel the drain once I start OB/gyn and peds in April. I'm very jealous that you're allowed a selective in 3rd year. Radiology is one of the fields I am currently considering - kudos to you for being able to r/o or r/i during 3rd year. I would give my right testicle for that chance. Lucky for me I don't have testicles.
 
Was feeling the drain. Now on a rotation I love (what I want to do). It has shown me what I can get out of the rotations I have left and given me motivation to read the information for fun (not just looking up patients I have had). Granted, I am exhausted, but I don't care on this rotation. (I have gen surg, FM, and OBGYN left)
 
on a bright note, i've been managing to balance third year with extracurriculars, weekly outings, and exercise/beach often. it's important to me and my well-being.

i'm in pediatrics right now (notoriously painful at our school), and i find myself asking multiple times, "when will this block be over?" ironically enough, a peds ER attending and my clerkship advisor both think i should go into pediatrics because i interact well with kids/parents and seem to have a good grasp on the material. i just smile and secretly maintain my interest in surgery, hehe.

fortunately we did not have to round today (president's day). instead, a few buds and i tackled our first Great Aloha Run, an 8.15 mile course from Aloha Tower to Aloha Stadium, followed by cooling off at the beach. can't complain about going to medical school in hawaii, with it's perpetual summer.

my fellow classmates think i'm crazy/nuts/insane for doing all of this. i probably am, haha, but at least i'm happy 😀
 
you could almost say that 3rd year is intended to be draining. that's why god invented the 4th year of med school, so you can rest up and get your life in order before internship. i think part of the reason 3rd year is tough is because internship is tough... programs want to see folks that can adapt to and work though a crappy schedule.
when you're a resident, just try to remember what it's like for 3rd years 🙂
 
Toward the end it gets tough to keep caring about all the little things one used to at the beginning of the year. It seems to happen to most people. Luckily my school has an accelerated curriculum. I have 8 days left until the end of 3rd year. WOO HOO! I'm a medicine shelf away from....um, studying for Step2 CK...ok, on second thought, let's keep 3rd year going a little longer.
 
werd said:
you could almost say that 3rd year is intended to be draining. that's why god invented the 4th year of med school, so you can rest up and get your life in order before internship. i think part of the reason 3rd year is tough is because internship is tough... programs want to see folks that can adapt to and work though a crappy schedule.
when you're a resident, just try to remember what it's like for 3rd years 🙂
Click to expand...

It's not so much the workload as actively disliking what I'm doing. Right now, I don't even have that hard of a schedule, but I'm so damn bored in my freaking peds clinic. I'm sure as hell not going to be doing anything like this during intern year. Did I mention I hate peds? 🙄 I can't imagine how I'm going to feel when I hit the part where my schedule actually sucks on this rotation, which'll happen.
 
Honestly I think this has less to do with the rotations you guys have (though that does play a role to be sure) than just the rhythm of school years in general. I mean it's February, it's cold/dark, the holidays are over (valentine's day is depressing), there's not as much to do, it's weeks away from spring break...the list goes on and on. Even when I was in college, February sucked.
 
Third year medical school and internship are usually the most difficult years in medical training, mostly because you're given a new role and it takes time to figure out what's expected of you. That said, if you already know what you want to do with your life, the rest of your 3rd year rotations could potentially be miserable. Or you can glean over them without much thought.

Ultimately, how well you do in your 3rd year medical school probably has little effect on your overall career. It just gives you good stories to tell others in the future.
 
My energy levels are close to zero but we have a lot to look forward to 👍 Fourth year, no more exams, and a lot of time next year! At least that is what I keep telling myself...
 
No bubble busting allowed. And 4th year has to be better since I don't have to do another peds rotation. 🙂 I think I'd like anything better than this.
 
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i feel the same. i wanted to quit med school at least twice this week. i think it has to do with this being the end of 3rd year, burnout, and trying to schedule aways/electives/Sub Is while being on Peds which is notoriously time consuming at our program.

but then i see my friends who are 4th years...and they are happy and rested and waiting for Match Day. thats all that keeps me going while Peds sucks the life out of me.
 
IMHO

Peds = Garbage

Yes. Bunch of prick attendings thinking they are great and giving crappy evals to med students. Psh, were they trying to emulate surgery? Inferiority complex?

Heck, they were very successful in draining me by the end of the rotation and effectively eliminating this field. and even then the attending had guts to offer an LOR to me -> really? FU

I would do Ob/Gyn twice instead of peds - atleast the grade was based on how hard you worked on floors and you were appreciated for starting IV's doing ultrasounds etc.
 
Wow, it's interesting to hear that people at other schools hate peds, too. I too would rather repeat ob/gyn than do this hell again. On rounds, the attending doesn't teach at all and is slow, so we basically stand in the hallway and follow her around for 3 hours each day. What's the point?
 
I'm sickly tired of the rationale so believed by the administration which says "staying in the hospital = education." I've wasted so many hours in the hospital. Sometimes I wonder "if you can just let me go home and give me a book, I can learn 100x faster." What's the point to learn from an attending in round where everything he says is in a review book? And nothing is more bureautic than watching another person working, meanwhile appearing to be intensely interested. Oh by the way, I just learn how to click this this and this buttons in this EMR program and that's very educational!

In addition, I'm deadly tired of people saying "no matter what specialty you go into, you have to know _____." There are just so many exceptions. If you going into pathology, why the hell do you need to know how to deliver a baby? Oh, because the woman can at the same time have uterine cancer and you will need to biopsy... Dude, you can make a connection between any two things in the universe. I need to worry about a lake on one of Saturn's moons because there may be aliens in that lake and they will come to Earth tomorrow to kidnap grandma. Does that mean I have to start learning astronomy?

Sometimes I do wonder if 3rd year is the best way to teach medicine. Just like everything in life, the inertia of the status quo overrides everything that actually makes sense.
 
I'm feeling that energy drain now...on internal medicine and I hate it. People who are responsible for their own crappy health and are now too far gone to be fixed. Yay.

I can't for the life of me fathom why anyone would want to do this with their life. But I guess somebody's gotta do it.

And I actually enjoyed my peds rotation, it beats the hell out of adult medicine , that's for sure. I don't know if I'll end up going into peds, but I'm surprised that many of you had such negative experiences on it. But I guess if you don't like kids, obviously you're not going to be a fan.
 
veenut said:
I don't know if I'll end up going into peds, but I'm surprised that many of you had such negative experiences on it. But I guess if you don't like kids, obviously you're not going to be a fan.
Click to expand...

I love kids. I still hated peds.

It was the only rotation where, evidently, not wanting to do that particular specialty automatically made me a failure at medicine AND at life. WTF?
 
I am tired too. I frontloaded my schedule to get the harder and more time-consuming rotations out of the way. At this point, the fatigue has accumulated but thankfully the rest of my year will be very chill. 👍
 
This thread was started around the same time last year and man do I feel this! I'm so burned out, even though I like neuro in general. I just don't want to be an MS3 anymore. 🙁 How to get motivation/mojo back?
 
T-minus 70 days left in 3rd year and counting...!

Just remember you can't stop the clock...

and

*Illegitimi non carborundum*
 
Doing ob-GYN now. energy is really just about almost drained. Still have the OB-GYN shelf and the 3 month internal medicine next. Of couse, still have step II to take, then residency application etc. This really sounds fun,

Just have to keep telling myself, "this all shall pass"
 
The worst part is having to do all those other rotations after you've already rotated thru something you know you want to do. But when I start thinking about Step II, away rotations, ERAS, and interviewing, third-year seems safe, if boring. :scared:
 
The best way to avoid the drain is to stop thinking that things are going to magically be different or better when you reach the next level...

Think back and I promise you that this crossed your mind...

In high school, "university is going to rock, get me out of here"

In University, "med school is going to rock, get me out of here"

In basic sciences, "clincials are going to rock, , get me out of here"

In 3rd year, "MS4 is going to rock, get me out of here"

In MS4, "Residency is going to rock, , get me out of here"

In residency, "Practicing post-residency is going to rock, , get me out of here"

and so on....

If you cannot enjoy (and or tolerate) the present and find the cool things that you will miss, then you are in for much more stress and headaches in life.
 
M4 does rock. Of course, I thought M3 was flat out fun. Even with overnight call Q4 for 12 weeks straight on IM.
 
Aphasic said:
The worst part is having to do all those other rotations after you've already rotated thru something you know you want to do. But when I start thinking about Step II, away rotations, ERAS, and interviewing, third-year seems safe, if boring. :scared:
Click to expand...

Yeah... I finish surgery in a few days and I'm so bummed. Have medicine next (suck) and really now that I've figured out surgery is the one for me, I don't want to spend the next 4 months doing other junk I don't want to. The EM selective in April will be a break, but otherwise the next few months are just going involve wishing I was in the OR. 👎 At least I might get a little more sleep for the next few months.
 
I agree totally. Inpatient peds sucks...just dealing with a bunch of passive-aggressive residents who treat everyone like children. They have definitely made me cross peds off of the list, even though I thought it was cool at first.
 
remo said:
I agree totally. Inpatient peds sucks...just dealing with a bunch of passive-aggressive residents who treat everyone like children. They have definitely made me cross peds off of the list, even though I thought it was cool at first.
Click to expand...

Man, what's the deal with peds attracting passive-aggressive types? Same goes for the super-b1tchy types in obgyn? Is it the field that selects the applicant? Or does it transform the resident into someone with those traits?


Anyway, which field has the coolest people? By coolest I mean the most fun to be around.
 
Good Yeast said:
I'm sickly tired of the rationale so believed by the administration which says "staying in the hospital = education." I've wasted so many hours in the hospital. Sometimes I wonder "if you can just let me go home and give me a book, I can learn 100x faster." What's the point to learn from an attending in round where everything he says is in a review book? And nothing is more bureautic than watching another person working, meanwhile appearing to be intensely interested. Oh by the way, I just learn how to click this this and this buttons in this EMR program and that's very educational!

In addition, I'm deadly tired of people saying "no matter what specialty you go into, you have to know _____." There are just so many exceptions. If you going into pathology, why the hell do you need to know how to deliver a baby? Oh, because the woman can at the same time have uterine cancer and you will need to biopsy... Dude, you can make a connection between any two things in the universe. I need to worry about a lake on one of Saturn's moons because there may be aliens in that lake and they will come to Earth tomorrow to kidnap grandma. Does that mean I have to start learning astronomy?

Sometimes I do wonder if 3rd year is the best way to teach medicine. Just like everything in life, the inertia of the status quo overrides everything that actually makes sense.
Click to expand...

THIS!

Seriously, you make too much sense.
 
Now that I am on medicine and am kept far away from my true love (surgery)... I'm definitely feeling the 3rd year energy drain. I have no interest and no desire to perform well. Still want to help my residents out as much as possible, but otherwise I don't want to be there. I was forced to sit around wasting my time with nothing to do for 3 hours today, and I just got so irritable!! Going to be hard to get through 4 more months of 3rd year. 😡
 
Jwax said:
Now that I am on medicine and am kept far away from my true love (surgery)... I'm definitely feeling the 3rd year energy drain. I have no interest and no desire to perform well. Still want to help my residents out as much as possible, but otherwise I don't want to be there. I was forced to sit around wasting my time with nothing to do for 3 hours today, and I just got so irritable!! Going to be hard to get through 4 more months of 3rd year. 😡
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I feel. I wish I could fast-forward to MS4, so I could go back to doing what I'm actually interested in.

Peds sucks, I have more homework and lectures now than I did in all of undergrad. Not to mention having to have my work and attendance signed off on on little cards every 3-4h. I'm baby-ed more than the patients. 🙁
 
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