Opinion: studying during down time on clerkships

[sunshine02]

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Do any of you guys feel bad studying during down time on clerkships? Sometimes there's really nothing for me to do, even after I ask if there's anything I could help with. But if I study in the workroom, like doing flashcards etc, I get the feeling that residents don't like it. Does anyone have similar experiences? Would love to hear from a resident's perspective too!

 

[HomeSkool]

If you've done everything you can to help the team, you've got nothing to feel bad about. Who cares if the residents are jealous you have study time? If they really have a problem with it, they should give you something to do. Don't feel bad about using learning time to learn.

 

[AMEHigh]

Studying during your down time is much better than bugging us. What else would you do/would the residents expect you to be doing? As a resident, I'm def not jealous of the med students that study. That's a weird assumption, ha.

 

[NickNaylor]

It's a perfectly appropriate thing to do as long as you're done with the rest of your work. Usually if I notice that a student is done with their work and doing nothing but studying, I will send them home.

 

[Donald Juan]

I only think better of students that are prepared and have things to study in downtime. Now, if there actually was stuff to do it would be different, but there are times when the studs are just hanging out while we are finishing up things they can't do.

 

[NYCdude]

It's a perfectly appropriate thing to do as long as you're done with the rest of your work. Usually if I notice that a student is done with their work and doing nothing but studying, I will send them home.

Lol what "work?" Horrendously botching consults or faxing documents?

 

[NickNaylor]

Lol what "work?" Horrendously botching consults or faxing documents?

In our rotations, medical students actually write notes, call families, do interviews, etc.

We attempt to minimize scut as much as possible.

 

[sunshine02]

Thank you everyone for your replies! It's been reassuring! But if you do study would you try to do it overtly? The other day after finishing everything I needed to do for my patients and after the residents told me there was nothing I could do to help them with their tasks, I just took out my laptop and started Anki-ing and reading pdfs of step up to medicine etc in the workroom. Is that too overt? Some of my classmates say they open up uptodate and pretend to read that lol but I just don't want to waste my time. Yet I don't want poor to mediocre evals either...

 

[ciestar]

I was sitting there doing AAFP questions today and read through Case Files or look up stuff on UpToDate when i need to. They’d much rather you be doing this than sitting on facebook.

 

[mistafab]

Definitely study overtly so that it is clear that you are studying and not wasting time or facebooking. Anki is great for that.

Do not do the bolded like these losers you described. That is literally the stupidest thing I have read this week. They would literally sit and ROT over actually learning anything. Disgusting.

Thank you everyone for your replies! It's been reassuring! But if you do study would you try to do it overtly? The other day after finishing everything I needed to do for my patients and after the residents told me there was nothing I could do to help them with their tasks, I just took out my laptop and started Anki-ing and reading pdfs of step up to medicine etc in the workroom. Is that too overt? Some of my classmates say they open up uptodate and pretend to read that lol but I just don't want to waste my time. Yet I don't want poor to mediocre evals either...

 

[Raney Schauer]

It's a perfectly appropriate thing to do as long as you're done with the rest of your work. Usually if I notice that a student is done with their work and doing nothing but studying, I will send them home.

In our rotations, medical students actually write notes, call families, do interviews, etc.

We attempt to minimize scut as much as possible.

Dammit. See, I want to hate Texas but you're really making me work for it.

 

[AMEHigh]

If there really is nothing to do, then I personally would not care if you're on Facebook or whatever. I mean, I don't go out of my way to look at what a student is reading. Now if a student is asked to be prepared to discuss an article, they're on Facebook all day and also don't read at home at night and don't come prepared the next day then I'll think they're a dummy. But if a student decides to spend all their time on Facebook, yet does what is asked and seems prepared then I don't care/likely wouldn't even notice. Trust me, we're too busy to pay attention to every students move, don't flatter yourself 😉

 

[Snoopy2006]

Just depends on how you phrase it.

I've had students who were looking to leave the second we were done rounding - very clearly wanted to go study for shelves, didn't want to wait for admissions, etc. Those weren't my favorites.

I've had others who are hard workers, try to carry their weight with the team, help us out as much as possible, and then, only when it's clear the residents are just working on notes, ask if they can get some studying in. Usually by that point I'll send them home anyway.

The trick I used as a student was to bring materials with me. When things settled down, I'd find a spot to read nearby and let the residents know exactly where I was, sometimes in a workroom (if that's where the residents hung out) or otherwise in a quiet corner of the same unit. You don't want to self-dismiss yourself from the action. Our student lounge was on the opposite side of the hospital - if you're sitting in a different wing studying, you're not going to get called for the cool new case that just got wheeled into the ED. Plus if the attending comes back to staff the new admission and asks "Wheres MS3?" at 3 pm, it's not a great look.

 

[pawprint]

I disagree with some people here. I hate it when medical students are on UWorld instead of focusing on what is going on in the clinical space. If you have free time, go check on your patients; if you've done that, find an interesting topic related to whats going on with one of your patients, read up on it, and talk to me or the other residents about it.

I had a rotating 4th year doing UWorld while on nights the other night (on NICU) while we were slammed with deliveries the entire night. I had to keep asking her to help because she was so busy doing her UWorld questions instead of being pro-active. As a medical student, I never did Uworld at the hospital, I focused on my patients. I am not a genius, so if I could find time after going home to study and still do well, other people can do that too. Its all about situational awareness, as a medical student you have the ability to contribute to the team by really spending time with your patients and reading about educational topics to talk to the group. When I see a med student doing practice questions, I don't think
"wow that's a great medical student, he dedicates himself to his studies", instead I think "wow that's a medical student who cares more about his grades than acting as a team player."

 

[AMEHigh]

I disagree with some people here. I hate it when medical students are on UWorld instead of focusing on what is going on in the clinical space. If you have free time, go check on your patients; if you've done that, find an interesting topic related to whats going on with one of your patients, read up on it, and talk to me or the other residents about it.

I had a rotating 4th year doing UWorld while on nights the other night (on NICU) while we were slammed with deliveries the entire night. I had to keep asking her to help because she was so busy doing her UWorld questions instead of being pro-active. As a medical student, I never did Uworld at the hospital, I focused on my patients. I am not a genius, so if I could find time after going home to study and still do well, other people can do that too. Its all about situational awareness, as a medical student you have the ability to contribute to the team by really spending time with your patients and reading about educational topics to talk to the group. When I see a med student doing practice questions, I don't think
"wow that's a great medical student, he dedicates himself to his studies", instead I think "wow that's a medical student who cares more about his grades than acting as a team player."

Yeah but this is a totally different situation. You said you were really busy and had to keep asking the med student for help. The OP said if there's nothing else going on and that was what my response was based on. Sometimes there really is nothing for a med student to do/contribute to, at least that's the case in my experience. For me personally unless I specifically asked a student to look up and give me educational info about a patient I would prob be annoyed if I was either taking care of a patient or trying to take a breather during down time and they came up to me lecturing me about chf because they just read about it lol.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

If you're done with your work, I think it's okay to study. I wouldn't do something like UWorld or flashcards though. I'd be reading a book like case files. If you're reading a book, there's no question in anyone's mind what is going on. If you are using anything electronic, they assume it's facebook

 

[bonemann]

my residents so far have been pretty good about sending me home once the action is done and they're just writing notes, but I definitely do feel some sort of weird pressure not to be overt when studying or whatever. Maybe its just in our heads but idk i think we pick it up from somewhere