living far from the hospital during rotations

[devildoc2]

Hello,

I am an MS2. Currently I live about 30 minutes away from school and commute every day.

For MS3/4, is this going to be impossible? Will the faculty get mad at me if it takes me 30 minutes to come in if I'm paged while on a rotation?

Has anybody ever commuted from a long distance to med school during clinical rotations? Is it possible at all or has nobody ever done this?

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[Amy]

It's definately possible. You'll most likely be at the hospital when you're on call anyway. As long as you arrive on time in the morning, it really doesn't matter where you live.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I don't know any medical students who were asked to come in from home. If you will be taking call, most likely it will be in-house. If, by chance, you do a rotation where you are allowed to take home call, then its up to you to find a solution (ie, stay in-house until a certain time, then go home if nothing is happening, stay with a friend who lives closer those nights, or take your chances on having to drive back and forth).

It can be incredibly painful to have to get up even earlier and get home even later because of your commute, but its been done and if you prefer to live where you are, I'd stay...don't worry about it as long as you arrive on time (as mentioned above).

 

[DOtobe]

I just finished my family practice rotation which was about a 40 minute drive from my house. It does suck that you have to get up earlier, but after a few days it wasn't a big deal. I don't know how a commute would be for rotations like surgery, but the commute was fine for me with something more laid back with shorter hours like FP.

(But I didn't have to deal with call since it was an outpatient office, so I can't comment on that.)

 

[Starflyr]

I live 30-45 minutes from school (depending on traffic). It does kind of suck - but when you have to be there at 5 am, it doesnt matter much whether you leave at 4:30 or 4:45, it STILL sucks. Now, I have an issue with Neurology - we have to be here at 8, but traffic between 7 and 8 is SOOO bad it can take me over an hour to get there, so I have to leave at 6:45 and hang out in the hospital for 45 minutes.

As for call, some rotations here DO allow "home call" but only if you live within a certain distance. Others will let you go home early even if you're on call until 12 (I got to leave at 9 last time). If you have to stay overnight (trauma, pedi, etc), they have call rooms with bunkbeds for you to sleep in.

Honestly, if you have a rough on call schedule (q3 or q4 for a month or whatever), it may be worth it to rent a place closer by or mooch off a friend. However, the time you're doing that isnt long enough to justify MOVING, IMO.

Star

 

[Asher]

I moved in closer to my school at the beginning of my third year, cutting a 20-30 minute drive (depending on traffic) to about five minutes (seriously, it almost takes longer to walk from where I park than to drive to the hospital). It has been wonderful to be so much closer -- especially at the end of a long day when I'm too exhausted to fight traffic. Plus, a few rotations that were quieter (less likely to have anything for students to do on call nights) would let me take home call so that I wasn't stuck at the hospital when nothing was going on.

If you are renting, it might not hurt to just look into what is available around the hospital, but if you own a house, I wouldn't panic and try to sell it or anything. Another thing to consider is how convenient your current residence is to shopping, church, kids' daycare, etc. Sometimes living closer in to the hospital means that you have to drive out further to deal with everyday errands like going to the grocery store. Luckily for me, I still have easy access to stores and the church I attend. One final thing to consider is the safety of the area surrounding the hospital. If it is in a bad area, the stress over worrying about being robbed, etc., would probably be greater than the stress caused by a longer commute (it would for me at least).

 

[Jaded Soul]

Originally posted by devildoc2
Hello,

I am an MS2. Currently I live about 30 minutes away from school and commute every day.

For MS3/4, is this going to be impossible? Will the faculty get mad at me if it takes me 30 minutes to come in if I'm paged while on a rotation?

Has anybody ever commuted from a long distance to med school during clinical rotations? Is it possible at all or has nobody ever done this?

Don't you need to concentrate on getting into the top 10% of your class before worrying about years 3/4?

 

[jlw2004]

I'm a MSIV and have been commuting 35 miles each way for my clinical rotations. At 4:30 am for surgery, that's a half hour, but during any rotation that requires me to be there after 6:30 hits rush hour and takes me up to 1 1/2 hrs. 30 minutes is very doable. The 1 1/2 hr is rough.