4th year is awesome

[Sammich81]

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I love fourth year even more now that I finally made up my mind to go into anesthesiology. God I love the drugs. I like my patients again (except when they bite me as I'm trying to intubate...I didn't know that could happen).

Just have to get over the whole applying to residency hurdle and I'm golden...

 

[Magnus67]

I'm halfway through a month of IM, rounds with attending form 6am to 7am, then he says something witty like "go play video games or whatever it is you kids do."

I reply with a hug and say "god bless you."

also "studying" for step II 😴

4th year is the bomb

 

[sophiejane]

Anyone planning an fun trips during 4th year? I have a month off before graduation, I'm thinking I might try to backpack in Europe 👍

Now or never!

We're going to Europe, sans backpack (been there, done that...not to mention, too old for hostels and way too old for backpacks). Just Berlin and Prague for daily beer-swilling, finishing up with a little wine tour along the Rhine.

My husband will be taking pics because I doubt I will remember much...

 

[Richie Truxillo]

I love you people for posting on this topic. This gives us 3rd years a light at the end of the tunnel 😉

*hugs for all*

 

[DixieCup8]

4th year is beautiful. I get sent home at 1:30pm, and somehow I'm considered a gunner for staying "so late". I love it! 😎

 

[pinkfrosting]

My favorite part about fourth year is not having to study for shelf exams. That and all of the electives that don't require pre-rounding 😀

 

[VJWDO]

On pulmonology elective this month and got sent home @ 11:25AM!!!!!
This is the best month of my life!!! 😀 👍

 

[dynx]

My day yesterday:
-arrived at 8am
-Rounded...slowly
-took a nap in the call room
-attending rounds:
a. told the attending that, actually, I didn't get around to reading that article he handed out...sorry.
b. When asked, told the attending I had no desire to apply for this institution's IM program.
-made an appointment for my cars scheduled tune-up, printed forms for the DMV, called my bank, called my dad.
-left at 3pm

This is the life. This is what 4th year is about. Unfortunatly, next im on CT surg, SICU then another surgery rotation till December. But after that, im looking forward to this type of schedule for the rest of the year.

 

[Medical123]

I am currently on an elective where call "is suggested." I asked my attending how my call schedule and weekends should work. He told me that this was my 4th year and that this is an elective for me and that his only goal for me is to have fun and encourage my friends to take his elective in the future (it is not one of the more popular electives). That being said, I can do my call however it best works out for me! Nice! 🙂 Also, if I don't want to do call, I don't have to and it won't affect my grade.

He also constantly is asking me if I like the rotation, if the residents and fellows are treating me well, and if there is anything he can do to make it better for me. No one in the third year could care less whether or not I was happy! This is great!

 

[KidDr]

I am currently on an elective where call "is suggested." I asked my attending how my call schedule and weekends should work. He told me that this was my 4th year and that this is an elective for me and that his only goal for me is to have fun and encourage my friends to take his elective in the future (it is not one of the more popular electives). That being said, I can do my call however it best works out for me! Nice! 🙂 Also, if I don't want to do call, I don't have to and it won't affect my grade.

He also constantly is asking me if I like the rotation, if the residents and fellows are treating me well, and if there is anything he can do to make it better for me. No one in the third year could care less whether or not I was happy! This is great!

wow...what specialty is this??

 

[JkGrocerz]

ahhh...4th year.. twas a great time. enjoy it while it lasts

 

[Chandler]

Wow! I'm glad I'm not the only one losing sleep over this decision.

I concur with the sentiments that the current system for 3rd/4th yr students is complete BS.

WTF?!? Why do I have to languish on psych for 6wks, FP for 6wks and peds for 6wks during my third yr...when I am stone-cold-sure that I have no interest whatsoever in any of them!

OK, congratulations you're a 4th yr....you have 3 1/2 mos to confirm your future career choice, procure LOR's and complete your ERAS filings. Give me a f uki n break. 😡

Because 99% of away rotations require that these "core" rotations are completed. 😀

 

[Dr. J?]

Because 99% of away rotations require that these "core" rotations are completed. 😀

Smart a s s!

 

[Hard24Get]

My day yesterday:
-arrived at 8am
-Rounded...slowly
-took a nap in the call room
-attending rounds:
a. told the attending that, actually, I didn't get around to reading that article he handed out...sorry.
b. When asked, told the attending I had no desire to apply for this institution's IM program.
-made an appointment for my cars scheduled tune-up, printed forms for the DMV, called my bank, called my dad.
-left at 3pm

This is the life. This is what 4th year is about. Unfortunatly, next im on CT surg, SICU then another surgery rotation till December. But after that, im looking forward to this type of schedule for the rest of the year.

But wait, don't we have to worry about our grades in our rotations, at least until September, for match purposes? What's all this slacking off about? I am on SICU now and worried about my grade 'cause I'm taking 1 day off per week and only working 14 hrs!

P.S. If anyone is wondering, my school starts "4th year" in Jan.

 

[dynx]

But wait, don't we have to worry about our grades in our rotations, at least until September, for match purposes? What's all this slacking off about? I am on SICU now and worried about my grade 'cause I'm taking 1 day off per week and only working 14 hrs!

P.S. If anyone is wondering, my school starts "4th year" in Jan.

yeah, I busted my ass in the SICU...110 hour weeks. If you're going into surgery just worry about your Surg grades. All other electives you just need to pass.

 

[Hard24Get]

But what about class rank? 😕

 

[dynx]

But what about class rank? 😕

All that matters is what my rank was when they wrote the Deans letter. What do I care now?

 

[oompaloompa]

To all the other 4th years out there, has this happened to you?

Perhaps this was poor planning on my part, but this is how it worked out. For the last six months, life has been good. I have only done electives in my chosen specialty, or else I've been traveling or interviewing. I was quite blessed in that the work I did do was enjoyable to me and I was pretty much given a lot of autonomy/authority. No pointless busy-work. No following people around feigning interest. I was actually productive and when I finished my work --- I left, generally before 2pm. I didn't feel bad at all because I had done something of value.

That was then.

I have (perhaps unwisely) filled the last half of my year with our school's "required" rotations, almost none of which have anything to do with my specialty. For the last week, I keep hoping to wake up from what must be a PTSD flashback from 3rd year. We all remember the madness. Being made to wake up at an ungodly time only to waste hours "following and observing". The time warp that is "afternoon clinic", which would actually be tolerable if you could see patients on your own instead of the attending insisting you follow him around. Being pimped on obscure specialized data you will never need to know. Worst of all, I'm still there at 5-6pm, which is just not the 4th year way.

Where I may have been merely annoyed by this last year, now it feels completely f*cking intolerable after giving me a taste of the good life.

I know I'm being a huge whiner, and that I need to be brought back to my senses before the onslaught of internship.

Let the b*tch-slapping begin.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

To all the other 4th years out there, has this happened to you?

Perhaps this was poor planning on my part, but this is how it worked out. For the last six months, life has been good. I have only done electives in my chosen specialty, or else I've been traveling or interviewing. I was quite blessed in that the work I did do was enjoyable to me and I was pretty much given a lot of autonomy/authority. No pointless busy-work. No following people around feigning interest. I was actually productive and when I finished my work --- I left, generally before 2pm. I didn't feel bad at all because I had done something of value.

That was then.

I have (perhaps unwisely) filled the last half of my year with our school's "required" rotations, almost none of which have anything to do with my specialty. For the last week, I keep hoping to wake up from what must be a PTSD flashback from 3rd year. We all remember the madness. Being made to wake up at an ungodly time only to waste hours "following and observing". The time warp that is "afternoon clinic", which would actually be tolerable if you could see patients on your own instead of the attending insisting you follow him around. Being pimped on obscure specialized data you will never need to know. Worst of all, I'm still there at 5-6pm, which is just not the 4th year way.

Where I may have been merely annoyed by this last year, now it feels completely f*cking intolerable after giving me a taste of the good life.

I know I'm being a huge whiner, and that I need to be brought back to my senses before the onslaught of internship.

Let the b*tch-slapping begin.

I seem to will have screwed myself to an extent as well. For the past 6 months, I have literally had NO responsibility-- told by attendings not to come in or "just follow them around", followed by the 11 AM "you should go home". I had an entire month of transplant surgery in which I was actually there 6 days out of a possible 28. This month I am on an allergy rotation. I showed up on Monday at 9am. At 12 pm the attending said, "well, I don't care if you show up the rest of the month. You're a 4th year, do what you need to do, I'll be giving you honors regardless." Talk about the sweet life.

Now the bad stuff.
1. I take Step 2 CK in 3 weeks (didn't want to score lower than Step 1 so pushed it back so programs won't alter rank based on performance). Motivating myself to study for this has been unbearable--but its getting easier (ie. starting to fear failing it).

2. I have a mandatory family medicine rotation in 4 weeks. This is of my own doing in a way because I am going to Lake Tahoe (and wanted to go during the winter in order to get some snowboarding in). So this will be 4 weeks of me working in clinic doing stuff that I really don't want to do (I'm going into Path) and dreaming that the last 6 patients each day don't show to their appointments. Hopefully there will be no call.

3. Mid-March I take Step 2CS. Whoops, shoulda scheduled that one way back in like August so I could've taken it earlier and not be thinking about whether I passed this friggin thing come mid-May.

So, in a sense I left a lot of work for myself towards the end. Oh well. At least I still have ~3 months off before residency starts (Australia here I come!)

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

To all the other 4th years out there, has this happened to you?

Perhaps this was poor planning on my part, but this is how it worked out. For the last six months, life has been good. I have only done electives in my chosen specialty, or else I've been traveling or interviewing. I was quite blessed in that the work I did do was enjoyable to me and I was pretty much given a lot of autonomy/authority. No pointless busy-work. No following people around feigning interest. I was actually productive and when I finished my work --- I left, generally before 2pm. I didn't feel bad at all because I had done something of value.

That was then.

I have (perhaps unwisely) filled the last half of my year with our school's "required" rotations, almost none of which have anything to do with my specialty. For the last week, I keep hoping to wake up from what must be a PTSD flashback from 3rd year. We all remember the madness. Being made to wake up at an ungodly time only to waste hours "following and observing". The time warp that is "afternoon clinic", which would actually be tolerable if you could see patients on your own instead of the attending insisting you follow him around. Being pimped on obscure specialized data you will never need to know. Worst of all, I'm still there at 5-6pm, which is just not the 4th year way.

Where I may have been merely annoyed by this last year, now it feels completely f*cking intolerable after giving me a taste of the good life.

I know I'm being a huge whiner, and that I need to be brought back to my senses before the onslaught of internship.

Let the b*tch-slapping begin.

My solution: whenever possible I just don't show up. It's pass fail . . what are they going to do fail me? I'm supposed to show up at clinic and then bug some random attending who has no idea I was coming that day. They don't know I'm supposed to be there. All I do is follow them around. No thanks, I'll just take a(nother) day for me tomorrow.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

My solution: whenever possible I just don't show up. It's pass fail . . what are they going to do fail me? I'm supposed to show up at clinic and then bug some random attending who has no idea I was coming that day. They don't know I'm supposed to be there. All I do is follow them around. No thanks, I'll just take a(nother) day for me tomorrow.

That reminds me of what I used to do on my assigned IM clinic days. I'd find out what attending was covering the resident continuity clinic I was assigned to. Then I would cross reference that with the clinic schedule of the private practice office going on across the street. More often than not, the attending assigned to continuity clinic would also be scheduled to be at his private patient clinic as well--meaning that the chief resident would have to cover the continuity clinic. If this was the case, I would simply skip out of continuity clinic and no one was the wiser as there wasn't a posted med student schedule. It was great--4 hours of sipping coffee at Starbucks and studying for the shelf. Probably the shadiest (and most academically dishonest) thing i did all year. Ending up honoring that rotation. It was a good 4 weeks; the other 8 weeks of inpatient medicine, well, that's another thing altogether...

Anyone have any other creative stories about how they got out of work during third year? We should pool resources for the upcoming third years.

 

[Tired]

My solution: whenever possible I just don't show up. It's pass fail . . what are they going to do fail me? I'm supposed to show up at clinic and then bug some random attending who has no idea I was coming that day. They don't know I'm supposed to be there. All I do is follow them around. No thanks, I'll just take a(nother) day for me tomorrow.

I've done something similar. All my required 4th year rotations have a couple half days a week of required lectures, but of course the clinical faculty have no idea when it is. I would show up in the morning, and if the clinic was intolerable, I would just say I had lectures in the afternoon. Worked like a charm.

Two other strategies I've used:

1) Call in sick. You'd never do it during 3rd year or the sub-i's in your chosen specialty, but hell, might as well do it now. No one is going to fail you for being "sick", and considering the welfare of your patients. The worst they can do is require you to make up the days later, and that was a risk I was more than willing to take.

2) Find a conference you want to go to, and tell the required rotation that you really want to go to it, and that it will really help you make connections in your chosen field. A lot of directors will go along with this and give you the time off.

 

[abc56]

seriously? 4th year is that much better? YAY!!!!! after reading those posts i feel very reassured. 3rd year started out fun, but im getting sick of it. too much concern with what everyone thinks of you, too much pretending to be important when youre really not, too much faking enthusiasm. i cant take it anymore! 3rd year has brought out the lazy, patient avoiding side of me! hahaha.

 

[Caffeinated]

My school let me do a clerkship as a teaching assistant in the anatomy course. I can't believe I am getting away with this! It's like being an MS-I again except I only take one class, there are no tests, I have already seen the material, and I get to hang out with faculty who don't pimp me. It's like an extended Christmas break. By far, this has been the most chill part of my medical education. I am loving 4th year this month.

 

[OB1🤙]

HB's Guide to the Ultimate 4th Year (Warning! Not for the Gunner-at-Heart.)

4th year comes in 3 parts- Auditions, Interviews, and End Game. What you sign up for and when will play a huge role in your happiness as a 4th year.

Auditions (July-September)- You're coming off of busting your ass as a 3rd year, and you may as well continue the trend, because it'll pay off in the end. Figure out where you want to do residency, go there, and be the fancypants rockstar student that you are. At least, pretend to be for that month/those months. Throw in your sub-i/AI here too- you may as well get it over with now. You'll be happy you did later.

Interviews (October-January)- You'll be flying around the country putting on your best Big Boy/Big Girl Suit and pretending to play the role of future medical professional. Now's the time to schedule those annoying "hard" mandatory 4th year rotations!

Wait, what? Why schedule hard stuff when you'll be gone a lot of the time? Dude, think about it! You'll have excused absences galore and will be able to skip out on tons of time! Of course, you'll pretend to be heartbroken when you're telling your attendings or their secretaries (I really wish I could show up to your mind-numbing Grand Rounds and subsequent lectures, Dr. Monotone, but I'll be away on an interview that day. Gosh darn it, this interview stuff kills me!). So yeah. Do hard stuff when you won't be around for it. It's the 4th year way.

The End Game (February-Whenever)- Slack. Slack hard. Find the easiest stuff to take and take it. Go to Jamaica or Costa Rica, do a "research month" with someone you know doesn't care and won't make you show up, do whatever it takes to not work hard. If you really think you'll lose out on your well-honed skills take something like emergency medicine that'll have reasonable hours and will let you see patients in a non-annoying non-ward environment, but whatever you do, make sure it doesn't involve rounding. Unless that kind of thing is your bag, baby.

Follow this advice and you too can be the envy of your 3rd year colleagues, and can come post on internet message boards about how awesome your life is.

It all hits the fan come intern year and residency- responsibility becomes real, and our presence in the hospital starts to matter. Milk it for all it's worth until then, ladies and gents. It's totally worth it.

 

[Tired]

Follow this advice and you too can be the envy of your 3rd year colleagues, and can come post on internet message boards about how awesome your life is.

Okay, I'll say it.

My life, right now, is better than it has been at any point in the last four years. Maybe longer, if you include the MCAT prep time.

- I have actually resumed a normal frequency of sexual activity with the wife
- I go out on weekends
- I watch football on Sunday mornings (Saturday & Sunday, with playoffs)
- I get 8 hours of sleep a night, sometimes more
- I've seen two movies in the last two weeks
- I have dinner with the family

Life is wonderful this year.

 

[DHMO]

Okay, I'll say it.

My life, right now, is better than it has been at any point in the last four years. Maybe longer, if you include the MCAT prep time.

- I have actually resumed a normal frequency of sexual activity with the wife
- I go out on weekends
- I watch football on Sunday mornings (Saturday & Sunday, with playoffs)
- I get 8 hours of sleep a night, sometimes more
- I've seen two movies in the last two weeks
- I have dinner with the family

Life is wonderful this year.

Kinda makes you wonder why we put ourselves through this. Shouldn't all of these things be normal?

 

[Tired]

Kinda makes you wonder why we put ourselves through this. Shouldn't all of these things be normal?

Because normal people will never experience the sheer joy of throwing a screw or sewing bowel.

The first time I scrubbed on a case (MSI year), the resident took a mallet and osteotome to this girls femur, and got so into it that pieces of bone went flying eveywhere, including directly into my faceshield. My choice was made that day, and I never looked back.

 

[BigNavyPedsGuy]

A 4th year trick that was handed down to me. Now I feel like I need to share that advice. Show up in the morning (not too early) see patients, do the job, etc. Then go to lunch . . . . and don't come back. Did it today. And it worked . . . like a charm

 

[reviewer220]

As I fourth year, I feel much better after reading this thread. I thought I was the only person who has done nothing remotely cerebral in the past few months. I leave for interviews, get dismissed around lunchtime most days, and do zero scutwork. I have been trying to read a little bit because I feel so dumb, but I know the next few years are gonna be very demanding... I think I'll just enjoy resting and traveling to interviews.