Feeling guilty during rotations

[tensegrity]

Third year has been easier than I anticipated. Not because I’m super talented, instead it’s because my preceptors don’t have high expectations.

I put in the effort to pass and then do what I want with my free time. Everything I read says that 4th year is even easier. I can’t imagine.

I just feel so guilty for not spending all of my efforts on medicine for the first time in a long time. It feels like if my dean, preceptors, or future PD came to my house and saw me go days - or weeks - without doing anything medical related outside of clinic they would be disappointed. I know I can be a better student too.

However this is the first time in many years that I’m able to have such a single-minded focus on my hobbies (learning new languages), and I am enjoying this change very much and don’t want to stop.

Any advice or insight? Find a better balance? Just embrace this change and enjoy the time and potentially suffer more in residency?

About me: nontrad, 3rd year DO student. Passed all classes and comlex 1 / step 1 on first attempt. One publication and decent ECs. Want to match into FM and am not geographically limited.

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[thumbz]

Welcome to DO life. With our schools you really and truly get out what you put in. I'm not going to tell you slacking will make you a bad doctor, because it won't. You should at least have a wards IM rotation - you'll work harder there.

I recommend buckling down for the rotations involving your future life (OB/gyn, peds, FM and IM) as that'll help make intern year significantly easier. You can slack for the rest without as much guilt.

As a preceptor, I realize now how incredibly forgettable med students are. As in, I'll forget what I asked you to read, what you did the day before, your name, or that you even exist. As a med student I told myself I wouldn't turn into that attending but it has a way of happening. With engaged students I work with them a lot harder than I do with the ones I can tell want to coast. I'm not going to bang my head against a wall trying to get them engaged, they're adults and paying to be there. They'll squeak through my rotation with a Pass.

 

[DO2015CA]

Welcome to DO life. With our schools you really and truly get out what you put in. I'm not going to tell you slacking will make you a bad doctor, because it won't. You should at least have a wards IM rotation - you'll work harder there.

I recommend buckling down for the rotations involving your future life (OB/gyn, peds, FM and IM) as that'll help make intern year significantly easier. You can slack for the rest without as much guilt.

As a preceptor, I realize now how incredibly forgettable med students are. As in, I'll forget what I asked you to read, what you did the day before, your name, or that you even exist. As a med student I told myself I wouldn't turn into that attending but it has a way of happening. With engaged students I work with them a lot harder than I do with the ones I can tell want to coast. I'm not going to bang my head against a wall trying to get them engaged, they're adults and paying to be there. They'll squeak through my rotation with a Pass.

Agree with everything here. Idk if I’ll ever precept but I would take the same stance. I love teaching and will teach any topic asked about that is in my wheelhouse but if the student wants to coast then yolo

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

Third year has been easier than I anticipated. Not because I’m super talented, instead it’s because my preceptors don’t have high expectations.

I put in the effort to pass and then do what I want with my free time. Everything I read says that 4th year is even easier. I can’t imagine.

I just feel so guilty for not spending all of my efforts on medicine for the first time in a long time. It feels like if my dean, preceptors, or future PD came to my house and saw me go days - or weeks - without doing anything medical related outside of clinic they would be disappointed. I know I can be a better student too.

However this is the first time in many years that I’m able to have such a single-minded focus on my hobbies (learning new languages), and I am enjoying this change very much and don’t want to stop.

Any advice or insight? Find a better balance? Just embrace this change and enjoy the time and potentially suffer more in residency?

About me: nontrad, 3rd year DO student. Passed all classes and comlex 1 / step 1 on first attempt. One publication and decent ECs. Want to match into FM and am not geographically limited.

Enjoy it while you can and do decently on step 2. No point in feeling guilty. You're the one paying for medical school

 

[hallowmann]

Third year has been easier than I anticipated. Not because I’m super talented, instead it’s because my preceptors don’t have high expectations.

I put in the effort to pass and then do what I want with my free time. Everything I read says that 4th year is even easier. I can’t imagine.

I just feel so guilty for not spending all of my efforts on medicine for the first time in a long time. It feels like if my dean, preceptors, or future PD came to my house and saw me go days - or weeks - without doing anything medical related outside of clinic they would be disappointed. I know I can be a better student too.

However this is the first time in many years that I’m able to have such a single-minded focus on my hobbies (learning new languages), and I am enjoying this change very much and don’t want to stop.

Any advice or insight? Find a better balance? Just embrace this change and enjoy the time and potentially suffer more in residency?

About me: nontrad, 3rd year DO student. Passed all classes and comlex 1 / step 1 on first attempt. One publication and decent ECs. Want to match into FM and am not geographically limited.

I mean, I think 3rd year is a good time to buckle down and study, because that's where I learned a lot of the practical application of knowledge-based medicine things and I still remember a lot of cases I saw from 3rd year (and early 4th year), because I pushed the curiosity when I was seeing patients and spent a lot of time reading up on their conditions. It also helped me a lot with Step 2, because I barely studied for that and did better percentile-wise than Step 1, all of which I attribute to studying harder during the year (and having mostly good rotations).

That all said, you don't need to feel guilty. Nor do you need to do what I did. Sometimes you just have to coast, or have to find the person you are outside of medicine again, and that's OK. For me I did that during 4th year, and that worked out. If I were you, I'd try to find something in between doing the bare minimum and living and breathing medicine.

As a preceptor, I realize now how incredibly forgettable med students are. As in, I'll forget what I asked you to read, what you did the day before, your name, or that you even exist. As a med student I told myself I wouldn't turn into that attending but it has a way of happening. With engaged students I work with them a lot harder than I do with the ones I can tell want to coast. I'm not going to bang my head against a wall trying to get them engaged, they're adults and paying to be there. They'll squeak through my rotation with a Pass.

Its terrible, but they really are. What's worse is I can't even relate or understand what their knowledge level is. I used to think it wouldn't happen, but I forgot how much random details they know, yet somehow have no intuition or sense of how to apply it in the real world. Like I don't know if I'm even effective teaching them because of it (its hard to get a sense of what is "too much" and over their heads or too simplified). I don't remember feeling that as a resident, but to be fair I mainly taught junior residents my last year of training, so its been a while.

Also, just the sheer amount of stuff I have to know and do now on a daily basis makes it impossible for me to remember much about them at all. Like as a med student I knew attendings were busy people conceptually, but I had no idea how much random stuff is done, and how much has to be constantly floating around in their heads.

 

[annoyedpsychiatrist]

the path to becoming a doctor and actively being a doctor are both full of ups/downs. you're at an up period now. Down periods are inevitable and wont be enjoyed. So why waste time not enjoying the up period?

 

[Mad Jack]

Welcome to DO life. With our schools you really and truly get out what you put in. I'm not going to tell you slacking will make you a bad doctor, because it won't. You should at least have a wards IM rotation - you'll work harder there.

I recommend buckling down for the rotations involving your future life (OB/gyn, peds, FM and IM) as that'll help make intern year significantly easier. You can slack for the rest without as much guilt.

As a preceptor, I realize now how incredibly forgettable med students are. As in, I'll forget what I asked you to read, what you did the day before, your name, or that you even exist. As a med student I told myself I wouldn't turn into that attending but it has a way of happening. With engaged students I work with them a lot harder than I do with the ones I can tell want to coast. I'm not going to bang my head against a wall trying to get them engaged, they're adults and paying to be there. They'll squeak through my rotation with a Pass.

+1, when I precept students I'll give them what they put in. Everybody gets a decent recommendation unless there's something off, but the ones that I can tell are engaged will get a shining recommendation. I have probably worked with 100 or so students at this point, and it really gets hard to keep them straight and differentiate one from the next. I try to make sure I teach at least one important thing every day to every student, but the ones that put in more I'll challenge and reward for it

 

[WannaBeAnMD1212]

+1, when I precept students I'll give them what they put in. Everybody gets a decent recommendation unless there's something off, but the ones that I can tell are engaged will get a shining recommendation. I have probably worked with 100 or so students at this point, and it really gets hard to keep them straight and differentiate one from the next. I try to make sure I teach at least one important thing every day to every student, but the ones that put in more I'll challenge and reward for it

Thanks so much for this comment! Would you be able to go into a little more detail regarding what a really engaged student looks like? For instance, I do my best to ask questions and try to figure out what is going on with patients. I'm always working on something during my downtime on rotation, whether that's studying or reading on up to date. But I fall squarely into the 'average' third year clinical rotation student. I have no idea how to stand out, and it terrifies me that I won't be able to match into my desired specialty because I'm just your average, hard-working student, but far from a superstar. Any pointers?

 

[Mad Jack]

Thanks so much for this comment! Would you be able to go into a little more detail regarding what a really engaged student looks like? For instance, I do my best to ask questions and try to figure out what is going on with patients. I'm always working on something during my downtime on rotation, whether that's studying or reading on up to date. But I fall squarely into the 'average' third year clinical rotation student. I have no idea how to stand out, and it terrifies me that I won't be able to match into my desired specialty because I'm just your average, hard-working student, but far from a superstar. Any pointers?

Just be yourself. Interest is something you feel. I can tell when someone is just trying to put on a show versus actually interested. Ask questions that you care about, ask to do things on rotations that you actually want to learn, etc.

 

[Splenda88]

Welcome to DO life. With our schools you really and truly get out what you put in. I'm not going to tell you slacking will make you a bad doctor, because it won't. You should at least have a wards IM rotation - you'll work harder there.

I recommend buckling down for the rotations involving your future life (OB/gyn, peds, FM and IM) as that'll help make intern year significantly easier. You can slack for the rest without as much guilt.

As a preceptor, I realize now how incredibly forgettable med students are. As in, I'll forget what I asked you to read, what you did the day before, your name, or that you even exist. As a med student I told myself I wouldn't turn into that attending but it has a way of happening. With engaged students I work with them a lot harder than I do with the ones I can tell want to coast. I'm not going to bang my head against a wall trying to get them engaged, they're adults and paying to be there. They'll squeak through my rotation with a Pass.

Medicine would be less toxic if most physicians were like you and me.

I don't work with students and residents, but I were, someone would have to be dangerous for me to fail that person.