Hey guys, just gone done with boards and will be starting rotations next week. My first rotation is peds. Now, I plan on busting my ass during rotations and will shoot for honors, but I am thinking about not working that hard for my first one because I am burnt out really. I figure peds would be the perfect rotation to do this with because it could possibly be dismissed as "Oh he's just not good with kids, no big deal". What do you guys think?
Taking it easy for my first rotation
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Are you serious? No offense, but I think it's a dumb idea to intentionally phone it in on your first rotation.
Peds is an inpatient rotation, so the skills you start picking up will be useful across all over inpatient rotations. So I'd advise working hard and trying to pick up as much as you can -- it will only help for the future.
Sorry to hear you're burnt out. Chances are the level of burn out you feel now is insignificant compared to the level of burn out you'll feel at the end of third year. So start strong. You can always chill later during a more relaxed rotation like family medicine or psychiatry.
Peds is an inpatient rotation, so the skills you start picking up will be useful across all over inpatient rotations. So I'd advise working hard and trying to pick up as much as you can -- it will only help for the future.
Sorry to hear you're burnt out. Chances are the level of burn out you feel now is insignificant compared to the level of burn out you'll feel at the end of third year. So start strong. You can always chill later during a more relaxed rotation like family medicine or psychiatry.
Thanks for the response, but I don't understand how you ask if I'm serious but then advocate relaxing on psych and family med, which for all you know could be what I'm interested in. Also, how am I supposed to know that peds would help with other rotations? It seemed the most irrelevant for my purposes since it's the only one where your patients are not adults. And I would think psych would be better for improving interviewing skills really
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Like mentioned, it's the skills that count. Yeah, it's probably one of the few rotations that involve kids, but you STILL will be working in the wards, learning how to take concise H+Ps, presenting information to an attending in an orderly way, coming up with assessments and plans, writing daily SOAP notes, etc.
The reason why he said you can rest easy on family med and psych is due to the hours of the rotations, not because you won't work hard. If you are burnt out after boards(which is reasonable), maybe take the first few days easy when you get home? Do something enjoyable for the first weekend, and when refreshed, can hit the ground strong. When you see your rotation schedule, you might get lucked out and start in the clinic, where hours aren't taxing. That is a great way to ease into third year.
Fortunately, residents will be aware that this is your first rotation. Therefore, they are gonna most likely ease you into the day-to-day routine.
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dude i was super burnt out after step 1. i had peds ER as my first rotation. i payed attention, but didn't kill myself. i just took it as an opportunity to get acquainted with the hospital and EMR and working with patients...take it easy...a chill month won't kill you, and chances are you'll feel better!
or you can continue to grind until you spontaneously implode.
or you can continue to grind until you spontaneously implode.
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Like the other dude said, peds is an inpatient rotation where you learn the basics of rounding, daily progress notes, H&Ps, presenting patients, etc. It's not a rotation to blow off just because it's kids. I did peds before IM and found it very helpful.
You shouldn't blow off family med or psych either, but the hours are a lot less grueling, allowing for more free time to relax. My family med rotation was purely outpatient, with all weekends off. Psych was mostly inpatient but also had weekends off, and rounds started much later than they do for peds or medicine, so I got more sleep then.
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As a former peds resident...your attitude is offensive. And trust me, whether you're good with kids or not, the residents will 100% know if you're mailing it in and the comments will show up in your evals. In fact, it's likely that your peds residents are even more in tune to picking up who is slacking on the rotation because of this perception that peds is easy - so they're used to picking it out in students.
Bottom line, as a 3rd year, you're not at the point in your career where you can check out. EVERY single patient is a learning opportunity for you at this point, EVERY single patient is a chance for you to get better at something. Even if it's just getting faster and more efficient at your daily tasks, you can get better everyday. And those things will translate over to other rotations and your work as an intern...
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Peds is definitely a valuable rotation, as it will offer you good exposure to inpatient medicine. As a student, you will be doing the same things you would do on an internal medicine rotation (writing progress notes, doing H&Ps, presenting to attendings, etc...). The only difference is, you will be doing it with kids. Actually, starting with pedes might be better for development of your clinical skills in the long run, because you will have to do histories and physicals on kids, which are probably more difficult than on adult patients.
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The entire rotation is at the office, with no ED, inpatient, nursery exposure? If that's the case....then yes, it would all be outpatient.
If that truly is the case, you will be taking it easy in terms of hours spent. Usually clinic days are 9-5, and your main(and maybe ONLY) obligation is to interview a few patients, present them to the attending, and probably write a note. Especially for the first week, you can relax when you get home, and your "burnt out"-ness might go away after a week.
Assuming your family med is out patient and not essentially a mini-IM rotation (inpatient family med) with worse hours (I'll take 30 admission team calls over doing the rotating shift game again...).
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If it's inpatient - Focus on good H&Ps, presenting, and notes.
If it's outpatient - Focus on good histories and presentations.
Things are often monotonous, but as a fresh 3rd year, you shouldn't have the confidence to take it easy at really any point. I'm currently more laid back as a 3rd year finishing up on family med because I've done a year of stuff, plus (and this is the major point) the attendings don't trust anyone but themselves (including residents) and re-ask all the questions anyways.
If it's outpatient - Focus on good histories and presentations.
Things are often monotonous, but as a fresh 3rd year, you shouldn't have the confidence to take it easy at really any point. I'm currently more laid back as a 3rd year finishing up on family med because I've done a year of stuff, plus (and this is the major point) the attendings don't trust anyone but themselves (including residents) and re-ask all the questions anyways.
Burnt out, huh? I have a friend who had a baby in fourth yr and she is rotating all the way through the June 30th and starting residency on July 1st. Be careful taking it easy on rotations. It will show up on your eval, which will go on your dean's letter. If the attending is nice, just ask for a day off here and there but work hard when you go to work.
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This, exactly.
OP - you've got four days off. Relax and get your head back in the game. You probably had last summer off, so you've only been at this for 9 months. Get used to the intensity, and don't hand in a poor performance so early in your clinical years. You don't know what you're going to end up doing, and it's better not to close off doors up front.
Uh, what? I only asked for time off on an M4 rotation after the attending made it clear that it would be okay, and it was to go to my brother's boot camp graduation. I would not suggest that an M3 ask for any time off, other than a very important family event.
Thanks for the replies guys. Just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply I would be blowing off the rotation. I was thinking more like taking entire weekends off. I was still planning on reading at night during the weekdays
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what is this about asking for days off here and there? that's worse than slacking when you are there, in my book. asking for a day off is nuts.
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Terrible advice. You should not be taking days off during the week as a MS3 unless you're post-call.
To OP, if you want to take weekends off (and your school doesn't require you to work 6 days/week) then go for it. God knows I didn't do anything the first 3 weekends of every single rotation I've had during this year.
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You really cannot ask for days off except for weddings of people very close to you, bereavement, or if you are attending a conference at which you are a presenter. You cannot just ask for a random day off just because you don't feel like coming it.
Regarding the OP, inpatient pediatrics is a good warm up rotation for doing well on inpatient internal medicine, surgery, and ob/gyn. I would not take it lightly. Even if you think you don't want to do pediatrics, children are encountered in many other subspecialties (e.g. ophtho, ENT, ortho, psych, rad/onc, etc.), and the H&Ps and presentation you do here will carry over very well into adult medicine.
Regarding the OP, inpatient pediatrics is a good warm up rotation for doing well on inpatient internal medicine, surgery, and ob/gyn. I would not take it lightly. Even if you think you don't want to do pediatrics, children are encountered in many other subspecialties (e.g. ophtho, ENT, ortho, psych, rad/onc, etc.), and the H&Ps and presentation you do here will carry over very well into adult medicine.
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Just show up on time, do what's asked of you, try to learn, don't complain, and look things up before you ask a question. You'll start picking up how things work in the hospital and what to do on a daily basis, and if you continuously do these things on every rotation you'll have a good year. Being lazy in the hospital is a huge waste of everyone's time: you're already there, might as well try to learn and help your team.
Now, if you want a chill experience, do whatever you want at night and on days off. You'll pass the shelf exam just by picking things up in the clinical setting. Don't expect to honor many rotations with this strategy, though.
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1) You actually encounter children a lot on other rotations. Not IM, obviously, but you have the babies on OB, and you can work on the pediatric services in Neuro, Surgery (and surgical subspecialties), and you'll probably work with them at least a little on family.
Pediatricians are cool people. It won't be a terribly stressful rotation, but don't check out. Enjoy your time off when you have it, but still work hard.
2) Psych patients offer a certain kind of interview, and it's not at all like an interview in the rest of medicine. I had psych as my first rotation of third year and struggled a bit when it came to transition to the other rotations.
