Studying During rotations

[libertyyne]

I have been having a bear of a time studying for rotations.
A majority of my time is spent on my rotation and by the time i get home and get situated I am already exhausted and ready for bed.
How does everyone manage studying on rotations?
Any tips ?
Am I doing rotations wrong?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[kb1900]

What service are you on right now?


Is it feasible to wake up even earlier like before 5 and get an hour or two in before showing up? Read up on your patients + do some questions/anki kinda deal. A few upperclassmen that killed their shelves recommended this approach to me.


At least that’s my plan since I’m pretty sure my first rotation expects 630/7 - 6 or so and I have never been able to study while tired at the end of the day

 

[NickNaylor]

When I was a med student, the key was to make use of every minute at the hospital as much as possible. Usually there's a fair amount of down time which is potential study time. Make sure you have a review book and/or a question book so that you can do some work during those periods of down time.

Like you, I was also exhausted when I finally got home, so studying at home was never that fruitful. Once I made it a point to work in the hospital, I found my time studying to be much more useful in addition to providing the benefit of not feeling guilty about actually relaxing when I was done for the day. In a worst case scenario, I would get to the hospital 30-60 minutes before I needed to, grab a coffee, sit down at the in-hospital cafe, and do some studying before starting clinical work.

 

[LyMed]

Print out info sheets or use your phone/anki. Conceal it with a clipboard or binder so it doesn't look like you're disengaged.

 

[libertyyne]

What service are you on right now?


Is it feasible to wake up even earlier like before 5 and get an hour or two in before showing up? Read up on your patients + do some questions/anki kinda deal. A few upperclassmen that killed their shelves recommended this approach to me.


At least that’s my plan since I’m pretty sure my first rotation expects 630/7 - 6 or so and I have never been able to study while tired at the end of the day

Im on medicine, but a weird subspecialty floor that i have to prep extensively for my patients. The advice of waking up earlier is solid tho.

 

[mrbreakfast]

It sounds like you just started clinicals? Don't worry, stuff gets smoother. If you are having trouble prepping your patients, get there 30 minutes early and use that time to look stuff up. In general, you should be arriving to your rotations around when the interns do.
That being said, I would strongly recommend forcing yourself to study a little bit every night. This is how you are going to be expected to study during M3, and you will have rotations where you are at the hospital for even longer hours.

Don't wake up early to study. It might sound like a good idea but you're going to hit the snooze/be inefficient and will be even more tired when you get home.

You should be doing practice questions or studying during every moment of downtime. Do uworld questions during lunch and when doing floorwork, etc.

Print out info sheets or use your phone/anki. Conceal it with a clipboard or binder so it doesn't look like you're disengaged.

Don't study during rounds. Once you are on the "other side" of the rounding group it is extremely obvious, no matter how sneaky you think you're being. Great way to get mediocre evals.

 

[mistafab]

My best advice for studying for rotations is just do a bit every day no matter what (at least 6 of 7 days per week). Don’t rely on that “perfect day” to do all your studying, because that day doesn’t come often enough. Even 20 minutes of studying after your hardest day would help you solidify the habit of learning - which will carry you through the rest of the year.

 

[Planes2Doc]

At the end of the day, try to hammer out the conditions and concepts you saw earlier with your patients. Associating the stuff with patients may help you remember things better. Hopefully you have weekends off, and can use that time for large study blocks.

 

[bobjonesbob]

The advice of waking up earlier is solid tho.

I'll echo this sentiment. I've always preferred getting up early to study. Get up, get some caffeine in, and knock out an hour or 2 of studying. Most days you'll have down time or get let go early enough in the afternoon to get some work done then too. But if not, you already know that you at least got a little bit in. This strategy sucks on surgery though when you wind up waking up at 3:30-4 every morning.

 

[ndafife]

Try to get through 40 Anki questions on your phone a day. I was able to walk to the hospital so I could knockout 10 each way. There are a lot of little moments to knock them out throughout the day. Done pre rounding and waiting to round? That's a couple questions for example. Made a lot easier to just review a set after getting home.

 

[mehc012]

When I was a med student, the key was to make use of every minute at the hospital as much as possible. Usually there's a fair amount of down time which is potential study time. Make sure you have a review book and/or a question book so that you can do some work during those periods of down time.

Like you, I was also exhausted when I finally got home, so studying at home was never that fruitful. Once I made it a point to work in the hospital, I found my time studying to be much more useful in addition to providing the benefit of not feeling guilty about actually relaxing when I was done for the day. In a worst case scenario, I would get to the hospital 30-60 minutes before I needed to, grab a coffee, sit down at the in-hospital cafe, and do some studying before starting clinical work.

Alternatively, I can never focus much while in the hospital, but do well once I get home. So to avoid the exhausted post-work crash, I used my downtime to nap in the call rooms. Usually after rounds the residents would say "OK, get xyz done, we'll get together at 1 to work on procedures, etc". So I'd get my stuff done quickly, and then take the hour or so that would usually be a lunch break and zonk out for a while, quickly wolf down my food and be back before they expected me.

My residents never noticed; I got more than my expected amount of work done and they were all busy or eating during that lunch hour anyway. Sometimes I'd get an even longer stretch, and then I was able to get work done when I got home.

Alternatively, just being in the call room was helpful for my studying, so if I wasn't tired, I'd still set up in there and get more done. I'd even go there to get my notes done, pages in, etc...there weren't enough desks at the main station for students, so it was expected that I'd disappear and go find a workstation somewhere else, as long as I got my stuff done. Way more relaxing to close the door, have a room to myself, kick off my shoes and white coat, and write notes with my feet up, then lay down and do UWorld while I waited for pages to get returned.
Half of the exhausting part of clinicals is feeling like you're "on" and under scrutiny constantly, so finding ways to get some time alone, even if you're still working, can do wonders for your energy levels.

 

[jurisburger]

As others have said you have to get used to studying in the hospital/on the go. Once you get the flow of how your team works you can probably find key points during the day that are basically down time. Assuming your notes are done and patients have been checked up on and no new admits coming in...I don't think anyone would care that you pulled out a textbook or looked through your study notes. At certain points I straight up just logged on to uworld if there was an open computer station. It will vary based on rotation and how understanding your team is. Obviously some of the more gungho attendings/residents won't take kindly to that so just make of it what you will.

 

[Newyawk]

Clerkship year sucks.

1. Dont overload on resources. I always did at least uworld and one other recommended resource.
2. Get at least 10 uworld Qs done per day.
3. Print out papers from the book youre using to study (assuming a pdf). Read during downtime. Carrying around 10 pages on white paper is much more crafty than a whole book or an iPad. If anyone asks you what youre doing, tell them youre studying. Assuming actual downtime, some residents will be happy youre studying, others wont care either way, and some will blame you for not constantly being on your toes and asking how you could help/finding new ways to help (the latter group youll learn to identify - they tend to have the same vibe). You can also ask if they need help with anything and then let them know that youre looking over some stuff and to just luk how you can help.