med student 'breaks'?

[PTtoMD]

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Hi everyone-this may seem like an odd question but i am trying to get a grip on what med school entails in terms of balancing family and school from a time perspective. Is there such a thing as a 'break' over the 4 years of medical school???

Does the typical winter break exist? Do you ever get a month or so off in the summer? My Master's program (MSPT) was close to undergrad wrt winter recess. As for summers we had one summer off (out of three). Just curious...still trying to determine if this will all be possible. We have lots of med students at the hospital where i work and a few were doing 'internships' this summer-more of less following a physician around, doing H and P's and presenting to the attending, also attending surgeries.... Is this mandatory or are they doing this to improve themselves and gain exposure to specialties. I believe the students i met were in their 1st or 2nd year of school. They did not seem to be third years doing thier rotations and the expectation on them did not seem too high. To be honest it looked like fun.

If it were just me, i could go year round without a big break but with a family, i imagine this would be really hard.
Thanks for any input.

 

[BeAdmitted]

In my experience you can have a lot of free time for family and extracurriculars in the first two years of med school. However, things change dramatically in the last two years. Instead of getting the summer off, you get a weekend between rotations and two weeks around Christmas. You have little control over your schedule and your weekly hours in the hospital can easily approach 60 - 80. It's unfortunate that things are structured this way because you don't find this out until you're 2 years and possible $200k into it. I don't mean to discourage you. I just think it's important to know this beforehand, and you're wise to ask the question in the first place.

The H&Ps you saw the students doing are mandatory. It's how you spend most of your time in the 3rd and 4th years. It's difficult at first but becomes pretty easy with practice. So by the time 4th year rolls around, it becomes second nature.

Good luck.

 

[DrMidlife]

From what I hear, the standard is to get your first summer off, and then no more than about a month off, per year, thereafter. And then during residency it gets serious.

Pick one of the schools you like and look at their curriculum and schedule. Lots of schools have them posted.

Have you read any of the books about med school & residency yet? Highly recommended so you know what you're getting into, with respect to daily/yearly schedule. No, really, HIGHLY recommended. Here are some I liked:

House of God - Samuel Shem
.....(it's fiction, and the TV show Scrubs is based on it)
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure - Perri Klass
.....(written by a young women who got pregnant during med school)
Intern Blues and/or Learning to Play God - Robert Marion
.....(Marion advised some students and made them keep diaries)
Becoming a Doctor - Melvin Konner
.....(I hated this guy. Leaves no whine unwhined. Good info!)

 

[Law2Doc]

Hi everyone-this may seem like an odd question but i am trying to get a grip on what med school entails in terms of balancing family and school from a time perspective. Is there such a thing as a 'break' over the 4 years of medical school???

Does the typical winter break exist? Do you ever get a month or so off in the summer? My Master's program (MSPT) was close to undergrad wrt winter recess. As for summers we had one summer off (out of three). Just curious...still trying to determine if this will all be possible. We have lots of med students at the hospital where i work and a few were doing 'internships' this summer-more of less following a physician around, doing H and P's and presenting to the attending, also attending surgeries.... Is this mandatory or are they doing this to improve themselves and gain exposure to specialties. I believe the students i met were in their 1st or 2nd year of school. They did not seem to be third years doing thier rotations and the expectation on them did not seem too high. To be honest it looked like fun.

If it were just me, i could go year round without a big break but with a family, i imagine this would be really hard.
Thanks for any input.

During the first two years you generally get a winter break, maybe a short spring break, a smattering of federal holidays, and the summer after first year off. You will be studying during the weekends, but not in class. Pretty generous. Most people use the summer after first year time to research or shadow, but it is up to you depending on your goals. The summer after second year you is technically "off", but you will be studying for Step 1, so you may be occupied for even longer hours than when school was in session -- most people time their test so they can have a week off before they start studying or immediately after the debacle. Third year is the roughest year, timewise, as you will probably have off the week between xmas and new years, two days off for thanksgiving, maybe a couple of days in the spring, and a smattering of holidays, but no extended breaks otherwise -- and you may have many weekends occupied as well. Most places have third year run right into 4th without a summer break. But since 4th year is largely electives, you generally have control over how intense or not you want to make it, with the caveat that you will be applying and interviewing for residency during the early part of that year, and may decide to do an away rotation, etc. If you are not trying to do intense surgery related rotations in 4th year, it can be quite cushy.

All bets are off for residency, depending on what you go into -- you get a small amount of vacation but otherwise, expect to have a ton of call and work straight through many weekends and you often have holidays off only if you can trade for them (so make good friends with people of different religions, people devoted to sports etc. (trading xmas day for the Superbowl was a popular on call trade at a place I worked before med school).

Folks at different stages/schools feel free to correct me.

 

[dancinRN1022]

During the first two years you generally get a winter break, maybe a short spring break, a smattering of federal holidays, and the summer after first year off. You will be studying during the weekends, but not in class. Pretty generous. Most people use the summer after first year time to research or shadow, but it is up to you depending on your goals. The summer after second year you is technically "off", but you will be studying for Step 1, so you may be occupied for even longer hours than when school was in session -- most people time their test so they can have a week off before they start studying or immediately after the debacle. Third year is the roughest year, timewise, as you will probably have off the week between xmas and new years, two days off for thanksgiving, maybe a couple of days in the spring, and a smattering of holidays, but no extended breaks otherwise -- and you may have many weekends occupied as well. Most places have third year run right into 4th without a summer break. But since 4th year is largely electives, you generally have control over how intense or not you want to make it, with the caveat that you will be applying and interviewing for residency during the early part of that year, and may decide to do an away rotation, etc. If you are not trying to do intense surgery related rotations in 4th year, it can be quite cushy.

All bets are off for residency, depending on what you go into -- you get a small amount of vacation but otherwise, expect to have a ton of call and work straight through many weekends and you often have holidays off only if you can trade for them (so make good friends with people of different religions, people devoted to sports etc. (trading xmas day for the Superbowl was a popular on call trade at a place I worked before med school).

Folks at different stages/schools feel free to correct me.

i think you are right but during residency... u get a month off each year...this is from what i have observed working in the teaching hospitals and by dating my boyfriend for the last two years... and he is now chief resident and he does the schedules... however this could be based on specialties and by residency program... so if a resident disagrees with me i would believe them!

 

[efex101]

Depends on the school...and residency you are usually OFF about 2-3 weeks.

 

[Law2Doc]

Depends on the school...and residency you are usually OFF about 2-3 weeks.

Yeah - The month the prior poster indicated seemed higher than what I've observed. I barely got that in my prior career.

 

[dancinRN1022]

okay i did preface my statements saying it is probaby based on the hospital and residency program...but the residents i work with and my bf both get a month off, i thought this was the norm..i guess they are just lucky🙂... they do not have to have a rotation or call and they usually go away and go home to visit their families

 

[efex101]

Wow, nice residency program for this is for sure not the norm.

 

[kronickm]

if you go to Freida it lists the vacation days for residency programs. It is typically 4 weeks. I imagine it is pretty much like you have the time off but good luck getting it approved...that sort of deal.

 

[PT2MD]

Hey PT...we could rack up some good prn income during those breaks! That's good to know.

 

[Law2Doc]

Hey PT...we could rack up some good prn income during those breaks! That's good to know.

You probably will want to use many of those breaks to actually take a break from anything work related. Vacations quickly become few and far between, so enjoy them when you got em. Except for the summer after first year, which you may want to use to do research (which some find helpful for residency app purposes).

 

[PT2MD]

You probably will want to use many of those breaks to actually take a break from anything work related. Vacations quickly become few and far between, so enjoy them when you got em. Except for the summer after first year, which you may want to use to do research (which some find helpful for residency app purposes).

Also good to know...Hey Law, what's your status? I've seen lots of your posts and know you are in school, but where?

 

[PTtoMD]

Thanks everyone for the input. I guess that is close to what i had expected/feared! I still have a lot to think about and hope this dream can come to fruition one day!

I guess i should not take for granted to 29 PTO days i get at my current job!
PT2MD-I admire your drive to work though breaks for extra cash but i would be enjoying the breaks free of extra work committments!!

 

[efex101]

Hmmm, maybe the time "off" varies by residencies...but from my perspective applying to IM this year...most programs give 2-3 weeks off per year.

 

[efex101]

BTW, for medical school at Mayo ...I got off about 5 weeks (if that much) btw first and second year, we had about 5 weeks btw second and third year (and that is time to study for boards as well), and then btw third and fourth year YOU determine how much time you take off for vacation versus interview time. Your best bet to find this out is to go to each individual medical school site and get their schedule. Good luck!