Does third year ever stop feeling like a huge waste of time?

[ijn]

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We start at 7 AM and any clinical work is all wrapped up by 2 PM. Then the attending stands around for 3 hours talking about his pet and his hobbies before releasing us. Please don't say I'm in for another year of this. We could be learning something. But no, now I know all about his dog's poo and his cat's hair balls.

 

[clifftacopter]

Jeez, maybe it's just that particular rotation? I'm on internal medicine right now and some call days we're so busy we have maybe an hour of downtime during a 17-18 hour period. Even on non-call days we're still pretty busy all day, we just go home earlier. I'm sure most of your rotations won't be like your current one.

 

[KnuxNole]

Rounds aren't all of third year, thankfully. Personally, rounds last way too long, especially on internal medicine. Surgery rounds are the best, since they actually know what the word efficient means.

That attending talking about crap near the end of the day is a rare occasion though, so don't worry too much bout that.

 

[235009]

Surgery rounds are the best, since all they care about is whether the patient farted so they can send them home

fixed^

 

[SteinUmStein]

Rounds aren't all of third year, thankfully. Personally, rounds last way too long, especially on internal medicine. Surgery rounds are the best, since they actually know what the word efficient means.

That attending talking about crap near the end of the day is a rare occasion though, so don't worry too much bout that.

Everyone goes on about how efficient and quick surgery rounds are, and they can be, but pm rounds can be desperately painful, especially if residents keep getting paged and new issues keep coming up. We've had pm rounds drag on for a solid 3-4 hours several times, and then you get to go home, sleep, and come back super early the next morning to do it all over again. Woohoo surgery, land of excitement, sleep deprivation, bowel movements, and flatus. 😉

 

[WellWornLad]

On one particularly painful medicine block during medical school, I rounded from 8:30 until 5-6pm every day. I kid you not. I consider it one of the great achievements of my life that I didn't slap that attending.

From that block on, medicine was forever off my list.

 

[Aclamity]

can someone enlighten me as to why rounds are so unenjoyable? serious question

 

[KnuxNole]

Easy: They are too long and dragged out.

I don't care about the DDx for random crap, or long-winded lectures...that's what turns me off for IM. If I was an IM doc, I'd round as FAST and EFFICIENT as possible in rapid fire succession.

 

[hrandani]

can someone enlighten me as to why rounds are so unenjoyable? serious question

Go to a full day of lectures (8 hours) and stand the entire time. At random intervals, have a friend quiz you orally with five uworld questions, providing no answer choices (pimping). Then another series of questions about what color shoes somebody in the room was wearing three days ago (lab values).

You'll get the idea pretty quickly.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Rounding isn't particularly fun, but I'd still take IM over all the BS associated with surgery any day of the week. I'd rather get pimped randomly while walking around the hospital than have to deal with pimping when I'm standing in an OR scrubbed in overheating under blazing hot lights after my feet have gone numb and my back has locked up. Surgery still sucks way, way harder than medicine in my book.

 

[KnuxNole]

Rounding isn't particularly fun, but I'd still take IM over all the BS associated with surgery any day of the week. I'd rather get pimped randomly while walking around the hospital than have to deal with pimping when I'm standing in an OR scrubbed in overheating under blazing hot lights after my feet have gone numb and my back has locked up. Surgery still sucks way, way harder than medicine in my book.

Oh I agree, give me IM over Surgery any day of the week. Thankfully, I know that life as an internist does not need to revolve around rounding. Personally, if I HAD to run a team with residents/students, I'm sure they would hate me since I would provide no education, just "move biatch!"

 

[GOMERE]

LoL.
You attendees have no life. When I was a student my attendees came in and rounded really quick for like 1.5 hrs then left.

Residents who pimp are stupid, full of themselves. One time a resident tried to pimp me, and I pimped him right back - in front of the attendee. LoL. Answered the resident's questions and correctly, and he couldnt get a single one of mine. LoL.

 

[winkleweizen]

LoL.
You attendees have no life. When I was a student my attendees came in and rounded really quick for like 1.5 hrs then left.

Residents who pimp are stupid, full of themselves. One time a resident tried to pimp me, and I pimped him right back - in front of the attendee. LoL. Answered the resident's questions and correctly, and he couldnt get a single one of mine. LoL.

Im sure that went great for you.

Sounds like someone else is full of themself

 

[GOMERE]

Im sure that went great for you.

Sounds like someone else is full of themself

LoL. Got a reason to be. 😉
No seriously though, I don't go around pimping students now. I teach when appropriate, but never just pimp to embarrass.

 

[link2swim06]

Today I watched my attending answer emails and read cnn.com for 2 hours today...gotta love third year. Oh and she had a headache, so it was 2 hours of silence...woot.🙄

 

[Aclamity]

I guess rounds are inefficient, but at least you're doing something, right? In my FM rotation I oftentimes find myself twiddling my thumbs while waiting for the next patient (which could take 30 min or more) because my attending has to distribute the patients among herself, the residents, and me (last priority)

 

[GOMERE]

If you don't mind just getting a P instead of an H, you should just ask if you can go home instead of wasting time. lol

 

[kaleerkalut]

If you don't mind just getting a P instead of an H, you should just ask if you can go home instead of wasting time. lol

On this note, I ask to go home because I'm done with all of my work ASAP. I always end up asking before the other student on my team does because the other student is terribly inefficient. Does this look bad? I mean I do all of my notes and see all of my patients.

 

[Perrotfish]

On this note, I ask to go home because I'm done with all of my work ASAP. I always end up asking before the other student on my team does because the other student is terribly inefficient. Does this look bad? I mean I do all of my notes and see all of my patients.

The polite medical student code for "can I go home" is "is there anything else I can do to help?".

 

[Sheldor]

The polite medical student code for "can I go home" is "is there anything else I can do to help?".

So, so true.

 

[KnuxNole]

The polite medical student code for "can I go home" is "is there anything else I can do to help?".

Definitely, adding the big smile and puppy dog eyes.

 

[kaleerkalut]

The polite medical student code for "can I go home" is "is there anything else I can do to help?".

This is exactly what I say. If they pause with "uhhh" I start listing things like phone calls, consults, etc. Still, I feel that I'm judged a bit because I'm quick. It just sort of sucks because if I want to stick around to appease them then I'd essentially just be hanging out for some random work to pop up. 😕

 

[Sheldor]

This is exactly what I say. If they pause with "uhhh" I start listing things like phone calls, consults, etc. Still, I feel that I'm judged a bit because I'm quick. It just sort of sucks because if I want to stick around to appease them then I'd essentially just be hanging out for some random work to pop up. 😕

Near the end of third year I stopped being quite so ambitious and I would use this more often. "Shockingly" my grades went up because, :gasp: I had time to study for the shelf worth >1/3 of our grade.

If you work hard and truly get all that's expected of you done, my experience is that using this line is a win-win. Either you go home an study and rock the NBME, or they give you more to do and you get bonus points for volunteering which is generally reflected in your evals.

 

[missmedschool]

We start at 7 AM and any clinical work is all wrapped up by 2 PM. Then the attending stands around for 3 hours talking about his pet and his hobbies before releasing us. Please don't say I'm in for another year of this. We could be learning something. But no, now I know all about his dog's poo and his cat's hair balls.

clearly you must be in neither surgery nor OB/GYN ...

 

[dally1025]

You gotta make the most of your rotations, even if you can't possibly force yourself to be genuinely interested. Keep at it, you may find some fun relating it to whatever you actually are interested in.

Example:

In regards to Batman's diagnosis, I think PTSD is more accurate. See this article:

“Holy PTSD, Batman!:” An Analysis of the Psychiatric Symptoms of Bruce Wayne
S. Taylor Williams, M.D. Academic Psychiatry 2012;36:252-255. 10.1176/appi.ap.36.3.252

 

[beeitchness]

We start at 7 AM and any clinical work is all wrapped up by 2 PM. Then the attending stands around for 3 hours talking about his pet and his hobbies before releasing us. Please don't say I'm in for another year of this. We could be learning something. But no, now I know all about his dog's poo and his cat's hair balls.

wait til ob gyn, then read your post again

 

[engineeredout]

Just wait until 4th year. By now you've been in the hospital for a little while and you're ready to do more. Only problem is that you can't. You are still a med student. You still face new doctors every month who think they are the first ones to tell you that med school is like drinking from a firehose. You continue to bounce from place to place so by the time people are comfortable enough to consider letting you do things, you're gone. Only plus is not having to study for shelves/boards (if you've taken them already), and once you submit ERAS it's just playing the waiting game for nine months.

 

[ArcGurren]

clearly you must be in neither surgery nor OB/GYN ...

Give me a freaking break. My trauma rounds and surg-onc rounds were longer than any of my medicine rounds and my postcall days were horrid because I wouldn't get out until noon due to how long they were. Every time I see people go "hurr surgery and OB rounds are so much better and shorter hurrrr" it annoys me because often times it's not the case. Ditto for some of my OB rounds, they were often super painful.

 

[ArcGurren]

Rounding isn't particularly fun, but I'd still take IM over all the BS associated with surgery any day of the week. I'd rather get pimped randomly while walking around the hospital than have to deal with pimping when I'm standing in an OR scrubbed in overheating under blazing hot lights after my feet have gone numb and my back has locked up. Surgery still sucks way, way harder than medicine in my book.

Not to mention that as an internist unless you're on a teaching team your rounds can take all of 15 minutes if necessary. Even on a teaching team I feel like younger attendings are far far more efficient and still find time to teach - the best teaching rounds I had on IM were with a young attending who rounded from 9 to 11 am (latest we ever rounded was about 1 pm) and the worst were with an IM doc who would round from 8 am to 4 pm without ever actually accomplishing much of anything.

I think as a generation the new physicians coming up are trained better in terms of efficiency (at least I hope we are)

 

[MilkmanAl]

If you work hard and truly get all that's expected of you done, my experience is that using this line is a win-win.

Trust me, that line annoyed me as a med student, and it annoys me now. Residents aren't idiots, and we've all been to med school. If someone tells you to go home, wish him/her a nice day, and go. If you're sitting around doing nothing, asking to go is more than fine.

 

[colbgw02]

July 1st of next year.

Oh wait, are we not answering the original question anymore?

 

[Mass Effect]

Give me a freaking break. My trauma rounds and surg-onc rounds were longer than any of my medicine rounds and my postcall days were horrid because I wouldn't get out until noon due to how long they were. Every time I see people go "hurr surgery and OB rounds are so much better and shorter hurrrr" it annoys me because often times it's not the case. Ditto for some of my OB rounds, they were often super painful.

Who said surgery and OB rounds were better or shorter? lol

 

[missmedschool]

Who said surgery and OB rounds were better or shorter? lol

Yeah my comment was saying that surgery is neither better no shorter ... smh