Early 4th year itis?

[vtucci]

---

Members do not see this ad.

One of our clerkship coordinators (OB/GYN) stated that it seems like 4th year itis has already set in for many people in the class of 2009. Specifically, many of my classmates (myself included) know what specialty they will be pursuing. As a result, many individuals have a more limited tolerance of clerkships that do not interest them for any number of reasons (hours, perceived malignant residents etc) and many of us are no longer even trying to hide our indifference.

Anyone see this already happening at their school?

Personally, I am looking forward to 4th year but trying to maintain my interest level (which granted can be challenging depending on the service/team).

 

[DoctorFunk]

At my school half of the class takes surgery, peds, and medicine during the first 6 months of 3rd year. I'm in that cohort and all we have left is Family Med, OB-Gyn, and Psych-Neuro. The 90% of us who have no interest in those fields are definitely being inflicted by "senioritis" already, and are generally looking for any way out of work at this point (at least when it comes to non-clinical duties).

 

[Ashers]

At my school half of the class takes surgery, peds, and medicine during the first 6 months of 3rd year. I'm in that cohort and all we have left is Family Med, OB-Gyn, and Psych-Neuro. The 90% of us who have no interest in those fields are definitely being inflicted by "senioritis" already, and are generally looking for any way out of work at this point (at least when it comes to non-clinical duties).

As a member of that cohort, and one who's 100% sure of what she's going into (ortho), I'm currently on surgery and counting down the days til I'm done with it. The only downside of being done with surgery is I have 2 months of peds and 2 months of medicine to contend with before I get to (hopefully) have my ortho sub-I in July.

 

[PeepshowJohnny]

I think it's worse if you're still deciding actually.

I'm one of many in my class who don't want to decide on what to do until they try some rotations only available in the fourth year. However, before we get a chance to do that, we have to suffer through rotations that we know we will never ever do in a million years as a career.

 

[Ashers]

I think it's worse if you're still deciding actually.

I'm one of many in my class who don't want to decide on what to do until they try some rotations only available in the fourth year. However, before we get a chance to do that, we have to suffer through rotations that we know we will never ever do in a million years as a career.

It's bad both ways knowing and not knowing. I already had my ortho rotation. It was way fun, and I miss it, the residents, everything. No other rotation has been nearly as cool. With peds coming up, I'm scared (I didn't like well child checks or anything with kids in family med) and medicine... I have a decided lack of attention span, especially for writing notes and H&Ps. Right now I'm bored because I don't have any surgery until this afternoon.

I'm looking forward to 4th year rotations I'd never do as a career. I'm planning on going home (Maui) and doing a derm rotation. I think that a lot of derm is disgusting, but I'm sure it'll prepare me for how I think I'll die (melanoma). I also want to do an anesthesia rotation. However, my school is one of the lame schools that requires 2 sub-Is (surg and med) I've talked to so many residents this year that've said they only had to do 1 sub-I (surg OR med). I may put my med sub-I way late in 4th year when I really don't care.

 

[Vader]

Yeah, I see this at my school as well. I try to mitigate the "itis" by focusing on things that will potentially be useful to me 1) during residency, 2) in my future field, and 3) in terms of interactions with other fields.

Even if you specialize, you will likely have to interact on some level with other specialties and especially with the referring physicians. Therefore, it is useful to know how they think and what types of information they really want to know (and don't want to know) when they refer a patient.

The same is also true if you plan on primary care--what info do specialists want to know, consider important, and what type of workup should be done prior to referral.

I think these are things that we as students do not realize are actually quite important because the focus in medical education is almost entirely inpatient, while most of medical practice occurs in the outpatient setting.

 

[DoctorFunk]

I think these are things that we as students do not realize are actually quite important because the focus in medical education is almost entirely inpatient, while most of medical practice occurs in the outpatient setting.

I would argue that they are either not important at all, or at the very least learning these skills would make the medical culture even more boring than it is now. Let me explain:

1). Every specialty I've rotated with (except maybe peds) is constantly b*tching about how every other specialty doesn't know anything about their field of medicine or how to interact with their specialty. Yet, somehow, life in the hospital still goes on.

2). Some of the best times for me in the hospital has come during the aforementioned conversations lamenting just how idiotic the docs on other services must be from reading their consult requests or phone interactions relating to their question. I would hate for these hilarious work interludes to cease simply because medical education did something silly like teach us how to approach a patient from a variety of specialties' points of view.

So my request is this: let's keep it simple and remember that once you hit residency as far as you're concerned the only real doctors come from your field. Everyone else is just a bunch of glorified IMG mid-levels playing pretend.

Disclaimer: I have nothing against IMGs and mid-levels. Usually they ask much more intelligent medical questions than consulting services, in my experience.

 

[chadderdo21]

4th year-itis? Well for me not exactly. 4th year will suck in the way of dealing with ERAS and all the residency stuff and how disorganized my school is with handling it, but as far as rotations with no tests to worry about at the end, it will be a 4th year joygasm! Can't wait! Oh yeah I am also done with surgery next week so that is an added plus, finally get to sleep again😀

 

[hyperbaric]

4th year joygasm!

Nice...

I have been counting the days for a couple months now.

 

[Sean2tall]

I guess I was starting to feel a little bit that way last year. I think the tough part is that you still have required rotations to do. And then you get the overt frown from the Peds attending when you say you're going into Radiology. Maybe during 3rd year they feel like they can still "turn" you to that specialty.

In 4th year, for some reason, faculty seem to be not surprised and/or don't care, maybe partially because all of your rotations are chosen by you, having some sort of logical connection to your career choice. Or maybe because you say it more definitively when asked what you're going into.

Currently on my Anesthesia elective, I have been trying to think of a reasonable answer as to why a Pathologist would need an Anesthesia elective, thinking it was printed all over my face that I was looking for an opportunity to slack. "Well . . . Uhh I liked being in the OR and wanted to see some more cases," Then why didn't I do Surgery? "Well I enjoyed working with Anesthesia for a few days during 3rd year." Alas, it has never even been asked.

 

[Anka]

I knew what I wanted to do very early on, and my attitude was "this is the last chance I'm going to have to do [pediatrics/medicine/etc]". Worked for me. Except in OB/Gyn, which was so miserable I don't know what to say to console you on starting the rotation, other than hoping you have a better experience than I did.

Anka