quitting fellowship

[dozitgetchahi]

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Mine follows ACGME work hours. That being said being on home call afterwork for >24 weeks out of the year plus working a lot more weekends is certainly more of a battering than residency ever was.

This.

I thought rheumatology fellowship sucked even more than residency in a lot of ways. I dealt with everything you describe on the schedule (lots of call, lots of hospital rounding, and the rheumatology service was very busy and we were expected to “pick up” all the hospital patients and follow them in clinic…which meant we had to add on a boatload of patients in clinic all the time, and find an attending willing to staff them with you), plus huge expectations in terms of research, lots and lots of presentations and grand rounds, etc.

I actually came to miss being able to sign out patients postcall and go home to crash in bed in peace.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

This.

I thought rheumatology fellowship sucked even more than residency in a lot of ways. I dealt with everything you describe on the schedule (lots of call, lots of hospital rounding, and the rheumatology service was very busy and we were expected to “pick up” all the hospital patients and follow them in clinic…which meant we had to add on a boatload of patients in clinic all the time, and find an attending willing to staff them with you), plus huge expectations in terms of research, lots and lots of presentations and grand rounds, etc.

I actually came to miss being able to sign out patients postcall and go home to crash in bed in peace.

Tbh it's when they throw in the extra stuff. The research. The Grand rounds. The presentations. Etc.
You go from this is a lot of work to this is basically my life. Like nothing makes you feel better than having a weekend off and then having to work the whole weekend to finish your GR presentation.

This is especially painful when you're utterly not interested in research. And you're basically just thinking to yourself why I'm wasting time on something useless as opposed to working on passing boards.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

Tbh it's when they throw in the extra stuff. The research. The Grand rounds. The presentations. Etc.
You go from this is a lot of work to this is basically my life. Like nothing makes you feel better than having a weekend off and then having to work the whole weekend to finish your GR presentation.

This is especially painful when you're utterly not interested in research. And you're basically just thinking to yourself why I'm wasting time on something useless as opposed to working on passing boards.

Oh yeah. Agree. And the funny thing is that if you’re not going to be going into academia, none of that stuff matters. As a PP rheumatologist, I have done exactly zero presentations since the end of fellowship. Which is funny, because those presentations we did in fellowship were a really big deal to my PD and department bigwigs and they would scrutinize the hell out of your presentations and grill you with questions after…in fact, several fellows at my program were taken aside at one point or another and given “the talk” that our presentations weren’t good enough. And yet, my performance on those presentations has no relevance whatsoever to my day to day practice as a doctor now.

Academics reside on a different planet, truly.

 

[Mdinfo]

I agree with you 100%. Yeah the first year will be tough and I anticipated it will be, didn’t think about every challenge I will face. I think I was so focused on the match and finishing training that I ignored that part.
I’m gonna try and give it a few months. Who knows maybe they will let me go before I end up quitting.

Curious what you ended up doing?
What you feel about it now?

 

[dgdg]

FWIW, having worked internships during college in a completely different field, I found the management environment in residency hugely lacking and dysfunctional. Already working 90 hour weeks on average, and the people above me having no management training themselves, they were focused on themselves in their current role with their own struggles. Sometimes it was pretty bad, not just for me. Some could avoid making it public or didn't share, other's were tied to the stake and put on fire. A few quit. Internship was a steep learning curve for me, but I did well after that. So many ridiculous stories that I won't share.
Anyway, if your environment is too toxic for someone who is not cardiologically precocious, I like the idea of transferring to a gentler place that actually tries to train and educate you. Good luck.

 

[dozitgetchahi]

FWIW, having worked internships during college in a completely different field, I found the management environment in residency hugely lacking and dysfunctional. Already working 90 hour weeks on average, and the people above me having no management training themselves, they were focused on themselves in their current role with their own struggles. Sometimes it was pretty bad, not just for me. Some could avoid making it public or didn't share, other's were tied to the stake and put on fire. A few quit. Internship was a steep learning curve for me, but I did well after that. So many ridiculous stories that I won't share.
Anyway, if your environment is too toxic for someone who is not cardiologically precocious, I like the idea of transferring to a gentler place that actually tries to train and educate you. Good luck.

My rheumatology fellowship was very much like what you described. Internal medicine residency was actually more reasonable and educational (although there was still a lot of “DIY” teaching etc). But fellowship had a strong undertone of “why don’t you already know how to do this thing that you’re here to learn how to do”. Training and education was lacking, and there was a lot of trying to figure it out yourself and learn by osmosis.