3rd year schedules - weekends?

[velouria]

Hi -
I'll be starting third year soon...but the schedules are a bit of a mystery to me. The biggest question right now is -- do we have to work on weekends? I imagine that it varies with the rotation but in general can anyone who has been through 3rd year comment on hours/schedule/life style in general? All I know so far is we have to go in really early and stay pretty late

Thanks!!

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[usnavdoc]

Hi -
I'll be starting third year soon...but the schedules are a bit of a mystery to me. The biggest question right now is -- do we have to work on weekends? I imagine that it varies with the rotation but in general can anyone who has been through 3rd year comment on hours/schedule/life style in general? All I know so far is we have to go in really early and stay pretty late

Thanks!!

Will you work weekends? lol of course you will. you will do everything your intern does meaning you will get there prior to rounds everyday and write notes on all the patients you are following usually 6 or so as a new M3. you will probably get a couple of days off each month depending on your rotation(some rotations more than others). Those days off will generally be weekend days. Your life drmatically changes third year. But its a good thing. You finally feel like you are becoming a doctor.

Some schools have a few months of outpatient medicine/peds as well in your third year. We generally had everyweekend off those months but had other assignments like preparing lectures and such.

 

[DrMom]

The standard schedule for my school (inpatient rotations) is 12 days on, then 2 days off. This obviously varies a lot, but it gives you some kind of expectation.

 

[CANES2006]

Work weekends?...Oh, yeah!.

 

[DW]

depends on the rotation. For stuff like Surgery and OB/GYN, I think its pretty standard at all med schools to basically live in the hospital for those weeks. Call was pretty light for psych and I only had one weekend call. Our outpatient/fp rotation has zero call.

 

[Smoke This]

and write notes on all the patients you are following usually 6 or so as a new M3.

more like 1 or 2 for the new MS3 at my shop.

 

[UCSBMed1]

Hi -
I'll be starting third year soon...but the schedules are a bit of a mystery to me. The biggest question right now is -- do we have to work on weekends? I imagine that it varies with the rotation but in general can anyone who has been through 3rd year comment on hours/schedule/life style in general? All I know so far is we have to go in really early and stay pretty late

Thanks!!

 

[rotatores]

you are following usually 6 or so as a new M3

Not's not correct...six patients for a new INTERN is even kinda high (depends on the service of course).

rotatores
USUHS 2006

 

[gschl1234]

Hi -
I'll be starting third year soon...but the schedules are a bit of a mystery to me. The biggest question right now is -- do we have to work on weekends? I imagine that it varies with the rotation but in general can anyone who has been through 3rd year comment on hours/schedule/life style in general? All I know so far is we have to go in really early and stay pretty late

Thanks!!

Just ask upper classmen or deans since it's probably different everywhere. According to 3rd years at my school, you get 1-2 days off every 14 days except PC where you get all weekends off and Psych depending on what hospital you're in.

 

[tigershark]

Most rotations we split the weekends so half of us would come in sat and the other half sun, the weekend days we were usually only there for rounds (2-3 hours) then we left.

Family and psych = no weekends. Anytime we were assigned to clinics or consult service we didnt work weekends.

 

[Sammich81]

Depends on the service. If you're q4, you get one full wknd off, one where you work both days, then you work one day on the other two (either a Fri night call or Sun call). Surgery and medicine have the heaviest schedules, and L&D on OBGYN.

Some rotations are nice and let the students make their own call schedules amongst themselves, whereas with some rotations you just take call with your team of residents, no exceptions. If you get to make your own call, I recommend working it out so you take more black weekends if it means getting more golden (totally free) weekends for everyone.

I usually carry 2-5 patients depending on how busy the service is. Only twice was ever carrying 6 all year!

Lifestyle: there will be moments when you get kind of pissy because you're just standing there holding up a wall, not being able to help your team, not learning, but not being able to leave. There will be moments when you feel ignored or abused. But it's about a million times better than 2nd year, so enjoy as much of it as you can. And don't eat too many hospital french fries, that's how we all gain weight on call.

 

[Soleil9]

Wow! my husbands got it easy! He's at a relatively small community hospital, and the rule there is students don't work any weekends. And he only is on call once or twice a month. He realizes now that this is certainly not the norm, and will be doing all of his electives and out rotations in a big city next year so he can catch up! So, light 3rd years do exist.....

 

[GoodMonkey]

on my busier inpatient services i generally got one day off a week. the other students on the rotation/service and i would arrange a schedule with our senior resident for who got what day off. this was for things like surgery, inpatient medicine, pediatrics, ob/gyn, etc. neuro was inpatient for me, but at the VA, so i had weekends off. for rotations based primarily in outpatient clinics (family, psych, outpatient medicine,) weekends were off. i only had 6 days of psych inpatient so can't comment on that.

 

[angel80]

For IM, surgery, inpatient Peds, and Ob/Gyn, I got approx 1 day off in 7 (sometimes, it was on for 6 off for 1, other times it was on for 12, off for 2.) Neurology and Psych were mostly inpatient/consult, but they gave us the weekends off. Family Medicine, outpatient Peds, and Ambulatory medicine gave us weekends off.