How can I recover from this 3rd year burnout?

[gidgetgirl]

Hi guys,

I'm a longtime lurker here but finally I have a question. I am feeling really burnt out and down on medicine right now, and I'm worried I don't know how to fix it.

I am currently a 3rd year, on my second rotation. Last year I thought 3rd year would be better because I'm finally in the wards, doing things, etc. Well, I was wrong, and the way I'm feeling hasn't gotten better. I am a good student, have always made good grades throughout 1st and 2nd year. I've always been pretty laid back, never stressed too much. Still don't, so far. I honored my 1st clerkship. I'm saying this because I don't think it's the stress of school and making grades that is my problem. I don't know what my problem is.

Lately I can't get excited about school. I dread going to the hospital everyday. The attendings and residents seem so jaded to me; they talk bad about their patients amongst each other, they roll their eyes about everything, as if it's such an inconvenience to them that this person is sick. I just can't get excited about medicine and becoming a doctor like I could before I started med school. Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't have come - I know I'll never quit because I'm 70k in debt and what a waste of time and money this would have been.

I don't know what specialty I want to do, I can't find anything that I can picture myself doing forever. I'm scared I'll never find anything. Sometimes I feel I'm wasting my youth in this place. Anytime I get away for a weekend, or have free time I feel GREAT, but then so much worse when I remember I have to go back. I don't know what to do.

Sorry I'm rambling... feels good to get this out. I know this isn't the first time a med student's felt like this - so for all out there that have - how did you recover? How can I find my spark again?

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[MilkmanAl]

I think all of those feelings are quite normal. Many/most people in medicine become jaded at one point or another. It's a coping mechanism for some and a result of getting run into the ground as a cheap laborer for others. Sometimes they really are wasting their time with patients who don't need hospital care (or any medical care at all). In any event, you'd do well to not get frustrated by the attitudes you encounter. Chances are pretty good you'll be exactly where they are in a few years, but even if you're not, there's no reason to get upset about people not being gushingly enthusiastic about their jobs and patient care. Just get through, and try to learn as much as you can on the way.

Alternatively, you can check out, yourself, for a little bit. Do the minimum work to get by, and bounce as early as you can without pissing people off. Maybe some extra time away from work and less energy expended during it would do you some good. I'm not sure I'd recommend doing that, but divorcing yourself from the situation may help if you can't bring yourself to ignore the things you don't like about your rotation(s).

 

[link2swim06]

I think all of those feelings are quite normal. Many/most people in medicine become jaded at one point or another. It's a coping mechanism for some and a result of getting run into the ground as a cheap laborer for others. Sometimes they really are wasting their time with patients who don't need hospital care (or any medical care at all). In any event, you'd do well to not get frustrated by the attitudes you encounter. Chances are pretty good you'll be exactly where they are in a few years, but even if you're not, there's no reason to get upset about people not being gushingly enthusiastic about their jobs and patient care. Just get through, and try to learn as much as you can on the way.

Alternatively, you can check out, yourself, for a little bit. Do the minimum work to get by, and bounce as early as you can without pissing people off. Maybe some extra time away from work and less energy expended during it would do you some good. I'm not sure I'd recommend doing that, but divorcing yourself from the situation may help if you can't bring yourself to ignore the things you don't like about your rotation(s).

That and alot of people who start med school already have type b personality issues. Compound that with a little stress and no work experience, you get a bunch of whiny, pissed off residents.

Don't get sucked into their misery. Do your own thing and find a speciality where people are more normal.

 

[Trastuz]

Don't get sucked into their misery. Do your own thing and find a speciality where people are more normal.

+1. In my experience, anesthesia, ophthalmology, psych and rads are docs that are pleasant to be around. (Probably some others too but can't think of them off the top of my head.) Spend some time with some and it may alleviate the fears that you'll never be happy as a physician. I had similar thoughts pretty much my entire third year.

 

[Brachyury]

There's no law that states you have to love all of your rotations. Who knows, you might love your next rotation.

 

[diagonal]

3rd year burnout? Ha! If medicine were a bolus of food, you'd still be in the intestines. Another 1.5 YEARS before you defecate. Sleep tight.

 

[siliso]

Keep your own head straight...you don't have to join in with nastiness and b*tching, nor do you have to be Preachy Mary Sunshine. And just wait for the next thing. If you've only had 2 rotations so far, maybe you just haven't found your fit and your people yet. So far it seems like 3rd year is a continual round of, "And now for something Completely Different!" Which can be good when you're sick of the last thing and bad when you love it.

 

[ArcGurren]

I've had happy residents in EVERY field (granted, some are more chill than others, but that isn't a measure of happiness - I've met miserable anesthesiologists for example) so it's not just the lifestyle specialties where you'll encounter people who are satisfied with their life.

Ultimately it depends on your personality and what you enjoy; go into something you enjoy and you won't be miserable the rest of your life. You've still got most of third year to go, you'll hopefully find something that fits.

 

[yuiness]

I think everyone has at least one rotation that they really don't enjoy, and this one might be yours. The nice thing about 3rd year, though, is that you're always rotating, so you never have to endure an awful rotation for more than a few weeks.

 

[Pipers]

I felt this way after my surgery rotation. Every morning when my alarm went off at 3 something, all I could think was fml. I dreaded going to bed because it meant that another day was about to start. I was ecstatic on the last day and honestly felt like a new person the moment after the shelf ended. Rotations have been much better since.

Head down and keep on truckin. It will end soon and you have at least 4 more rotations to figure out life.

 

[gidgetgirl]

Thanks (mostly) everyone who has replied so far with encouragement. It's really nice to know others have felt this way too.

 

[Alvarez13]

Thanks (mostly) everyone who has replied so far with encouragement. It's really nice to know others have felt this way too.

Yah, I'm on 3rd year as well. Fam Med and Psych so far. Nice people, but neither are what I can see myself doing for the next decade or so. I honestly have no clue what to do at this point. Just trying to take it one day at a time.

 

[viper930]

This happens to just about everyone. 3rd year is the worst of medical school, IMO. At least for me, the actual clinical learning is refreshing and actually fun. It's the culture that sucks. The heavy weight of subjective evaluations breeds knowledge-lacking, hyper-enthusiastic medical students who go in early, stay late, and jump on every manual disimpaction like it's the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. Unfortunately, both the rectal leprechaun students as well as those around them end up suffering 3rd year burnout sooner or later.

4th year is right around the corner and you will soon forget your woes when you start planning for 3 consecutive months of vacations and whatnot.

 

[deleted263296]

I felt the same way during medical school and I feel it exponentially more as an intern. FML goes through my mind every moment of every day. If I had no debt, I would be done.

 

[da8s0859q]

3rd year burnout? Ha! If medicine were a bolus of food, you'd still be in the intestines. Another 1.5 YEARS before you defecate. Sleep tight.

🙄

+1. In my experience, anesthesia, ophthalmology, psych and rads are docs that are pleasant to be around. (Probably some others too but can't think of them off the top of my head.) Spend some time with some and it may alleviate the fears that you'll never be happy as a physician. I had similar thoughts pretty much my entire third year.

For sure. Before I made a final decision, my specialty list was predetermined in part by overall happiness of the docs -- and residents -- in question. Rads, gas, ophtho, derm, EM to a large extent... life's too short.

 

[dr zaius]

Yah, I'm on 3rd year as well. Fam Med and Psych so far. Nice people, but neither are what I can see myself doing for the next decade or so. I honestly have no clue what to do at this point. Just trying to take it one day at a time.

I thought you were gunning for peds uro?

 

[medstud4]

Hang in there is all I can say. When I get tired of school I just think of were it will lead. Once you have landed that highly paid job you won't regret it. Medicine is one of the most varied fields out there.

What are your options otherwise? Partying for a few years? Yea you could do that. That's what I did and it was fun. But in the end...I wanted that highly paid, secure job. I wanted the security of being able to support myself and my family. I guess what, I wish I had gotten it sooner.

 

[Alvarez13]

I thought you were gunning for peds uro?

No, that was peds proctology and I'm not interested in that anymore.

Lately I've been thinking about gen surgery and then starting up a reality show where I do extreme surgeries. Tonsillectomies while skydiving and Whipples in that little shark tank thing. I need something combines my love for explosions with my love for cutting people without the possibility incarceration.

Maybe there's some type of bariatric surgery that utilizes explosions. Need to go pubmed.

 

[PikminOC]

I need something combines my love for explosions with my love for cutting people without the possibility incarceration.

Maybe there's some type of bariatric surgery that utilizes explosions. Need to go pubmed.

Just suture their mouths shut and give em TPN.

 

[Alvarez13]

Just suture their mouths shut and give em TPN.

Helps them...not me 🙁