If I do pediatrics at an away hospital (not our main hospital) will I have off on the weekends? And if so, does "off" mean I can travel away from the hospital and go somewhere else? I am thinking of doing an away rotation to be closer to where my husband is but don't know if it is worth it if I won't have off during the weekends to be able to travel to see him. He isn't going to be able to come to where I am since we share dorms and he can't stay overnight. Therefore, it only makes sense to go there if I will be able to travel and do my own thing on the weekends. Any advice?
That totally is rotation specific and nobody can answer that for you as a general rule. There are absolutely pediatric residents working on weekends at every hospital -- whether they make 3rd years come in too on certain weekends (for call etc) is up to the program.
I don't think there is any way for us to reliably answer that - every school is likely to be a bit different. You need to talk to someone at your school or at that specific hospital to find out.
For me at least, we worked weekends on inpatient peds, but my team would usually let me off one of the days (except when on call)
Also, lets just say there is a real jerk doctor I would like to avoid working w in a rotation, is it safe to say that if I did a rotation in his department that I would not necessarily have to work or come in contact with him? If I weren't in a team with him, would I still come in contact with him in some capacity since he is in the department?
Again, this is something you have no control over. But honestly, you have to get used to dealing with those "real jerk doctors". Learning skills to deal with the people you don't like is important in this field. It's character building.
Generally you don't work much with attendings that aren't your team, but your question is still much to specific to be reliably answered by med students on the internet who have no idea where you go to school.
Again, this is way too specific for any of us to answer.
If you have a REAL reason, not to work with this attending (i.e. not just that you heard he is a jerk), then you should talk to your dean of students. Otherwise, suck it up.
If you are rotating in that department, there is always a chance you will be working with that person - it depends on the schedule and how often he is on wards.