Medical school quality of life?

[MackandBlues]

what is your quality of life like in medical school as a nontrad student used to working a 40 hour a week job? do you have free time for your hobbies and/or family? is third year as bad as everyone on here says it is?

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[Law2Doc]

what is your quality of life like in medical school as a nontrad student used to working a 40 hour a week job? do you have free time for your hobbies and/or family? is third year as bad as everyone on here says it is?

You will find time for the select things that are really important to you, but I'd be lying if I told you there wasn't a big time crunch and that a lot of things you used to do and events you used to like to attend still are going to happen regularly. Third year is a window into life during your training. It isn't per se "bad",, just a lot of hours. Fewer than intern year though.

 

[ChemMed]

what is your quality of life like in medical school as a nontrad student used to working a 40 hour a week job? do you have free time for your hobbies and/or family? is third year as bad as everyone on here says it is?

You find out what is important to you very quickly and just like you learn how to traige the crazy amount of information coming at you, you also learn how to triage your life. What is important? What isn't?

I already have learned so much about myself just by being here and not all of it is comfortable. Its a great growing experience though Once you understand your priorities then everything settles in and its not so bad.

 

[cabinbuilder]

what is your quality of life like in medical school as a nontrad student used to working a 40 hour a week job? do you have free time for your hobbies and/or family? is third year as bad as everyone on here says it is?

Once you get through the first semester and all that huge time eater call anatomy and learning all the structures, you get into the rhythm of things. I scheduled my study time and time with my husband and kids and never felt like I missed out. If you are used to working a 40 hour week then it shouldn't be too hard to adjust. I looked at being in class as my job and I actually saw my kids more than when I worked full time.

Not sure why you think 3rd year is bad? I personally thought it was a piece of cake, you go to your rotation, try to learn as much as possible, stay out of the way, don't annoy anyone and go home. Of course when I was on rotations I didn't have to worry about SHELF exams - that since has changed I have been told. I must have lucked out because I did not do any call on rotations except for 1 night on the third year of surgery and I had to be at a delivery on a Saturday. Other than that is was mostly show up, participate in rounds and morning report and be where I was supposed to be. You will be fine.

 

[Law2Doc]

... Of course when I was on rotations I didn't have to worry about SHELF exams - that since has changed I have been told. I must have lucked out because I did not do any call on rotations except for 1 night on the third year of surgery and I had to be at a delivery on a Saturday. Other than that is was mostly show up, participate in rounds and morning report and be where I was supposed to be. You will be fine.

this has changed. At a lot of places in the harder rotations (surgery, inpatient IM, OB) you can be working 80 hours per week, including multiple overnights, and may get only 4 weekend days off a month, during which you are likely going to be needing to study for the shelf. But it isn't per se hard because the role for med students are often fairly easy. You need to come in, pre round, make nice with the patients, present patients and various assigned topics to the attendings, get pimped by the attendings and otherwise serve as a distraction for the attendings on rounds so the residents can finish up their work. Then the rest of the day, the med students "help" the residents get t he daily work done, and hopefully see what the younger residents have to do each day, since this will be you in a few years. If you do a good job, a resident may throw you a bone and let you do a cool procedure. If you seem like you don't want to be there, you probably get scutted out or sent off to do "get out of my hair" type projects, maybe a few extra DREs, and end up with a weaker evaluation at the end. 90% of the job is showing up with a modicum of enthusiasm, ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work. You are going to need to show up earlier than the interns in many cases to pre round, and to make sure you know what you need to present to the attendings -- it will take you a lot longer than someone who has been doing it every day for the whole year. But if you have a Gung ho, can do attitude, most rotations are pretty painless, just a lot of hours. If you whine about how you are working more hours than the residents, or that none of this matters because you plan to go into (insert some different specialty here), it can be painful for you. Generally, if you are good with the attendings, good with the patients, and mildly helpful to the residents, you do fine.

 

[MackandBlues]

this has changed. At a lot of places in the harder rotations (surgery, inpatient IM, OB) you can be working 80 hours per week, including multiple overnights, and may get only 4 weekend days off a month, during which you are likely going to be needing to study for the shelf. But it isn't per se hard because the role for med students are often fairly easy. You need to come in, pre round, make nice with the patients, present patients and various assigned topics to the attendings, get pimped by the attendings and otherwise serve as a distraction for the attendings on rounds so the residents can finish up their work. Then the rest of the day, the med students "help" the residents get t he daily work done, and hopefully see what the younger residents have to do each day, since this will be you in a few years. If you do a good job, a resident may throw you a bone and let you do a cool procedure. If you seem like you don't want to be there, you probably get scutted out or sent off to do "get out of my hair" type projects, maybe a few extra DREs, and end up with a weaker evaluation at the end. 90% of the job is showing up with a modicum of enthusiasm, ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work. You are going to need to show up earlier than the interns in many cases to pre round, and to make sure you know what you need to present to the attendings -- it will take you a lot longer than someone who has been doing it every day for the whole year. But if you have a Gung ho, can do attitude, most rotations are pretty painless, just a lot of hours. If you whine about how you are working more hours than the residents, or that none of this matters because you plan to go into (insert some different specialty here), it can be painful for you. Generally, if you are good with the attendings, good with the patients, and mildly helpful to the residents, you do fine.

Thanks - this was exactly the type of information I was looking for about rotations in medical school.

 

[sindadel]

Law2Doc has an excellent summary. During the pre-clinical years, I treated med school like a 60 hour a week job for the first semester and a 45 hour a week job thereafter. Plenty of time for other stuff, if you are efficient and if you work effectively when it is time to work. During the clinical years, work hard when you are on service and use any extra time (there will be lots of time when you have done a consult and are waiting to present to your senior etc.) to either study (e.g. reading uptodate on your list of topics you have jotted down in a notebook) (before 9 pm) or lie down (after 9 pm). In terms of time you are required to be at the hospital, it's a lot of hours, but it certainly hasn't been my experience that I am working flat out for all of those hours. Be curious, pay attention to what they tell you you should do, know your patients' vitals and lab values (WRITE THEM DOWN) and don't try to get out of the work you should be doing, and you will have a fun time on every rotation. Try to give your staff an impression of modest brilliance on the first day, and things will go well - SPEAK UP in rounds, try to answer questions first - you are supposed to get the easy answers as the medical student.

Good luck! It's all lots of fun and they put a lot of students through.

 

[hawk126]

The real answer here is that it depends on your expectations and upon your goals for your gpa. If you want to be AOA and/or are interested in competitive fields then you have to treat it like a 60-80 work week unless you're brilliant. If your plan is to do something less competitive, then 40-50 hours per week should do it. Med school can be pretty chill or it can be absolutely brutal... It just depends on what you want. So, the take home lesson is to take what you read on this forum and others on sdn with a grain of salt and make sure you get advice from people whose expectations and goals match your own. Good luck!!

 

[Evergrey]

Law2Doc has an excellent summary. During the pre-clinical years, I treated med school like a 60 hour a week job for the first semester and a 45 hour a week job thereafter. Plenty of time for other stuff, if you are efficient and if you work effectively when it is time to work.

I am only a first-year, but this has been exactly my experience for preclinical years. The adjustment to med school was overwhelming (especially because my relationship was crashing at the time). Once you adapt to the increased workload however, there is substantial room in your schedule for things you enjoy. I study about 50 hours a week (includes classtime) but this goes up before an exam. I'm able to have Friday nights and all of Saturday off every week that is a non-exam week. Life is good now and I can honestly say I am less stressed in med school than I was in college, even though I consistently work harder in my classes. A lot of it has to do with the fact that you get to focus on your schoolwork and hopefully don't have too many distractions like extracurriculars or work. Prioritizing, time management, and good study habits have been essential so far. I also am now single and do not have children, so those are factors to take under consideration.

In regards to what hawk126 said, that is also true -- not everyone's experience will be the same. My schedule works for me and I feel that I am doing pretty well. But I also know classmates that study every day and work hard and struggle to pass. You might not know which camp you're in until you get here And expectations have a lot to do with it as well. I felt like I had a lot of free time during a 40hr/wk job, so even though I am working quite a bit harder now than when I was working fulltime, I still feel like I have good quality of life. I play soccer/go running, hang out with friends, play videogames, go hiking, etc. Not all at once, mind you.