Anybody thinking of doing a transition year due to COVID?

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ladysmanfelpz

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I mean missing Surgery, internal medicine, and the rest lately have been filled in with BS online courses that require 10 hours of work a week. Yeah a light load can be nice, but what the hell am I paying for? I thought we were going to med school here?! And what sucks as I am one of those kids who came in not knowing what they wanted to do, and even as residency apps are starting are still iffy on what I want to do. I’m a mid tier student who wants/learns from experience more than text and this is bumming me out. Doesn’t feel good applying for a career we will be in the rest of our lives when you still have doubts. Anybody feel this way and anybody else planning on doing a transition year to get more time in the hospitals? And where can you learn more about transition programs?

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Nope. Not worth it given missing attending salary, etc. it would be incredibly ridiculous to do so. Everyone’s in this boat let’s roll
 
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Don't do that. Unnecessarily hurt yourself for an experience you'll make up in 3-6 months of intern year. All of us know interns next year are going to be rough.
 
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Yea that’s a tough one. Regarding the actual training I’d say you’ll make up for it in a difficult, frustrating kind of way during intern year. Intern year is a steep learning curve no matter what. The other issue is being unsure of what specialty to go in to. What rotations have you actually done at hospitals or clinics and what specialties are you considering?
 
For what it's worth, all of the specialties that I knew I did not like, I still did not like after I did them in person. However, by molding myself into each specialty, it allowed me to narrow down to the specialties that I knew from the beginning I'd like. If there was any better time, now is the time to take those personality based specialty tests to see what specialty you would fit in. Try to use your online module time to shadow those top 3 specialties and see if you fit into them. Sucks if you are thinking gen surgery but I have actually not met with much resistance from other specialties, esp those doing private practice (you probably can reach out to your school for a list of private practice clinics so that it's easier for them to respond back to you given a pre-established relation with your school). I actually think this is very beneficial because atleast when your 4th year starts, you can start running towards the right direction. I am sure we will be back full capacitance on clinical activities by then...
 
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