overnight oncall for med students?

[Adcadet]

Hey all -
I'm interviewing at med schools, and one fourth year med student suggested that I ask about being oncall overnight at the various schools we're interviewing at. He mentioned that at his school, they only have to do overnight oncall for OB and surgery, and for all the rest they're just oncall before midnight so they can go home and get some sleep.

Do your med schools do this? Is it common? Is it a big deal?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Adcadet

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[DR]

Every rotation and every med school is different. We had overnight call on various rotations and some were not. It depends on the hospital, the program, etc. I wouldn't worry about it, it doesn't mean much. Most people would probably think it's a bit of a bad idea to start asking such questions of the interviewer. It might imply that you are looking to avoid some hard work. Besides, by fourth year, you want your rotations to kind of approximate what internship will be like.

 

[Airborne]

I agree with DR -

We have "optional" O/N call - which I think is a good thing. However, I think it also important to actually do the call, as if one is particularly keen on, say surgery, but had not actually experienced it "full on" - you may be a bit overwhelmed and disappointed when actually forced to do it as an intern and resident.

Of all things to ask an interviewer, I would not ask about the call schedule! Doubtless your interviewer would know about the specifics anyway. Just be yourself, and hope you have no overt Axis II stuff come out! (j/k).

Best of luck - The interview process sucks.

Airborne

 

[Adcadet]

I should clarify. The person suggested I ask current 3rd or 4th year students about overnight oncall, NOT the actual interviewers. And yeah, I'm trying to act well-compensated to cover up my Axis II issues