Rotations = Work?

Haven't been on rotations yet, have you?

Yeah, we're still students. And no, we don't get paid.

It doesn't mean that you won't feel like you're "at work" when you do some of your rotations.

 

No I tell my friends I'm off to slavery.

You see, instead of work, we're useless spectators, who are judged every moment, and pay big money for the privilege of being belittled on a daily basis.

Slavery might actually be an understatement.

Torture?

Psychological erosion?

Spirit crushing education?

 

When I'm talking to my non-med school friends, I absolutely say "I'm at work now."

If I say "I'm on rotations now," they don't know what that means. So they think that it's okay to call me, or text me, whenever they feel like it. Or that I can just run out and grab lunch with them whenever.

If I say "I'm at work," then they know that it means not to call me unless it's a serious problem, and that I might not be able to run out and grab coffee whenever.

 

I'm gonna go with the term 'indentured servitude'

 

There's no easier way to refer to it. I call it 'going into the hospital' or 'going in', usually, but sometimes it's just easier/faster to refer say "going to work".

 

Students work too... And rotations are work. Few of my rotations were strictly doing H&Ps, dictating and getting outta there. It is the work experience half of med school. Just because you don't get paid doesn't mean you're not at work. What's the point of this thread?

 

+1

I have more beer than food in my fridge right now to suppresses those kind of thoughts. I've found a kegging system helps me deal with the kind of people you're talking about (for me, it's people who say "I scored in the XX percentile on the boards.")

 

Yes you have to do work on rotations. But you may not have to care--someone with a real MD will have to reapeat everything you do! So you can try hard and impress if this is something you'd like to do for your specialty and you need letters.

But if you're not so keen on this specialty and just looking to pass, I've got a little secret for you that will make the month(s) go twice as fast! Don't feel too guilty, just remember your H&P's, SOAPs, etc will all have to be repeated by the intern/resident/attending irregardless of whether they are brilliant and all inclusive or they are absolute toilet paper. So enjoy this homage to the Simpsons "Shary Bobbins" episode:

On rotations that you hate,
You must resign yourself to fate.
Don't pout,
Don't sob,
Just do a half-assed job…

If you cut every corner,
It is really not so bad…
Everybody does it,
When they're tired or sad.
If nobody notices,
Then nobody gets mad.
It's the American way!

The disgruntled MS3
Who is forced to take OB…
Vaginas really aren't his cup of tea.

And the privileged MS4
Who doesn't care anymore
The match is over,
So his work is sub-par.

If you cut every corner,
You'll have more time to play.
It's the American way!

 

As mentioned, calling it "going to work" is a lot easier then getting into a long explanation to friends of what you are doing on a rotation. In fact, it's a lot like work -- you have to go in every morning, you will have multiple "bosses", you cannot leave when you want to, you take meals when people tell you it is okay, you will do scut work and get yelled at when you screw up or praised when you do something right, you have to wear a uniform (white coat and/or scrubs), you provide customer service to patients, and at times you will do the same job function as various hospital staff. In most cases it is not like shadowing -- you will get scolded if you are just standing there watching when there is something helpful you can do. Your "job" is to help the residents, whether it be by getting vitals, presenting patients to higher ups, putting in lines, removing sutures or staples, taking down bandages, doing DREs, walking patients to check their oxygen sats, or holding retractors or suction in the OR. That you pay for the privilege rather than get paid is just a semantic issue -- that will reverse itself in a couple of years. It is an apprenticeship system, you learn by seeing and doing. Think of it as akin to an unpaid internship at a corporation if you like -- those folks call it work too.

But yeah, when you get up at 4am on a Monday morning, it's not going to matter to you whether it is really a rotation or work.

 

going to a hospital every single day from 6 am -4 pm , yeah sure its not work
i refer to the lay people that i am doing my internship, which usually means student in training

 

I call it work. Like L2D said it is a lot like a job... Things that aren't work are things that I can leave at will, this did not include my Medicine rotation.

I didn't do this so my friends would think I was saving lives a la Dr. Green on ER, mostly just to tell them where I was or where I was going.

Plus, again agreeing with L2D, when the alarm goes off at 3:45am and you don't have the option of turning it off it's hard not to view it as a job.

 

Well, those of us currently on rotations will be doctors in 1-2 years. Not fully licensed doctors, but doctors nonetheless.

Also, if the nursing assistant who spends half her day gossiping with friends and filing her nails can say she's at "work" then I can too.

As a third year medical student, MOST (not all) of my rotations have involved doing similar work to the interns - granted for fewer hours each day and with more protected teaching time. It is work - and a lot more work than any of my "full time" jobs ever were.

 

Please don't do that. With the advent of Grey's and all - everyone thinks internship means first year out of medical school. You're only confusing people, and possibly misrepresenting yourself to patients.

 

Clearly saying "I shadowed Joe Smith" is a far more useful piece of information than "I was on ortho rotation". This is the case because you have memorized the name of every attending physician in every specialty at your school and your classmates would otherwise think you had skipped directly to MS4 when nobody was looking.

Medical students have a severe obsession with anybody who might be trying to "rise above their station". Are you wearing a long white coat?! Are those scrubs you're wearing beyond the maximal 5 meter radius outside the hospital?! omg are you claiming you are not a completely worthless bag of flesh who should genuflect every moment he is allowed to set foot on the sacred wards of medicine??? How DARE you!

 

I wore a long one once cause i had lost my short one. got enough stares that i bought another one really quickly. That said, I think the whole short vs long white coat is very stupid. I wear short so I don't get grief, no other reason. Hell, I'd wear no white coat if I could help it. That thing gets so dirty so easily.

 

i love that my school lets us wear long coats. it confuses everyone.

 

In europe the students wear long coats as do the doctors and pretty much everyone. And europeans are the ones who are supposed to be classist.