VA rotations the easiest?

[econdr]

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so far from what I have experienced this year and from what my friends tell me rotations at the VA have the nicest attendings and residents and the easiest hours... anyone agree or disagree?

 

[DrBowtie]

I'd agree however it has painfully slow ancillary services which leads to lots of angry interns.

 

[vicinihil]

It takes surgery to a nice slower and more manageable albeit still pretty fast pace.

 

[Jolie South]

I thought medicine at the VA was PAINFUL. Nurses never document anything (I&Os, vitals) and refuse to do stat blood draws. Every patient has COPD, CHF exacerbation. I had the douchiest attending of all my clinical rotations there. Easy hours? Imma say not so much.

 

[Miss Alyssa]

I really enjoyed the patient population at the VA. I enjoyed talking with them.

 

[45408]

On the consult services, yes. Inpatient medicine was brutal. Long hours, always capped on admissions, insufficient help from support staff, etc. I worked hard on my sub-I, and my senior resident went well over hours every single time he was on call.

 

[coldweatherblue]

VA:

love the patients. down to earth dudes for the most part who are interesting to talk with, most patients are actually pretty sick.

poor nursing staff. bad attitudes, poor documentation, slow to do orders, etc.

lots of detailed notes. CPRS is a PITA.

when I did medicine at the VA we did q4 overnight call, the old-fashioned 30+ hour kind of call. so that sucked.

overall I like the VA but wouldn't say my rotations there were "easy".

 

[olemissbabydoc]

I thought medicine at the VA was PAINFUL. Nurses never document anything (I&Os, vitals) and refuse to do stat blood draws. Every patient has COPD, CHF exacerbation. I had the douchiest attending of all my clinical rotations there. Easy hours? Imma say not so much.

Every other group on Medicine left the VA by 2 every day, except mine.
It was dark most nights... and that was over 6 weeks ago... when it didn't get dark til now or later.
EVeryone else thought "House Medicine" (our internal service) was WAY more work.

To me, it was a breath of fresh air.

 

[OveractiveBrain]

I thought medicine at the VA was PAINFUL. Nurses never document anything (I&Os, vitals) and refuse to do stat blood draws. Every patient has COPD, CHF exacerbation. I had the douchiest attending of all my clinical rotations there. Easy hours? Imma say not so much.

I currently want to tear my eyes out of my skull. VA is the worst possible service. Ever. (DISCLAIMER: this is a metaphor for my emotions, and this is NOT a threat against the federal government or its systems). I would sooner firebomb CPRS, cut my testicles off and then shoot myself in the gut and slowly bleed out rather than have another VA rotation. Sadly, I will most likely have another glorious month on the VA by the time residency ends.

I have one medical student with me. She probably likes it since I just tell her to go do whatever she wants for 8 hours a day, and then text her to go home. Since all of our patients are sick as **** and are just f'ing rocks, the social workers don't do anything, and we barely get any new patients. It is all of the things that makes people hate medicine all at once. AWESOME.

AND most of the attendings are attrocious. I swear, people who can't get a job anywhere else find one at the VA. Par for the course for government work.

I hate my life. If I were a douche and made her "shadow" me all day, hers would be worse.

 

[Jolie South]

I currently want to tear my eyes out of my skull. VA is the worst possible service. Ever. (DISCLAIMER: this is a metaphor for my emotions, and this is NOT a threat against the federal government or its systems). I would sooner firebomb CPRS, cut my testicles off and then shoot myself in the gut and slowly bleed out rather than have another VA rotation. Sadly, I will most likely have another glorious month on the VA by the time residency ends.

I have one medical student with me. She probably likes it since I just tell her to go do whatever she wants for 8 hours a day, and then text her to go home. Since all of our patients are sick as **** and are just f'ing rocks, the social workers don't do anything, and we barely get any new patients. It is all of the things that makes people hate medicine all at once. AWESOME.

AND most of the attendings are attrocious. I swear, people who can't get a job anywhere else find one at the VA. Par for the course for government work.

I hate my life. If I were a douche and made her "shadow" me all day, hers would be worse.

Working on VA medicine makes suicide seem like a sane option.

 

[penguinophile]

Don't know if it is just my local VA, but the medicine part wasn't bad. The patients weren't that bad. Heck, social work actually were goddesses compared to where I did med school. But OMFG, the nursing staff!!! They don't give their own patients meds (dedicated nursing assistant has medication rounds), they don't start IVs (separate nursing team), they don't take FSG (that's a lab test...phlebotomy has to come for every frigging stick), they don't push any IV antihypertensives other than hydralazine, they don't push IV anti-arrhythmics, they don't give IV ativan, they won't give SQ vitamin K. Getting a test done is an act of congress. They will page you in the middle of the night to renew SSI and FSG, but I've been on call and WALKED INTO a rapid response that I wasn't paged for. Hours weren't bad, but every hour at the VA was more frustrating than a day at the university hospital which had at least twice the patient load with much sicker patients.

 

[justdoit31]

I think it all depends on where you are- my IM rotation had 2 weeks at the VA and while the hours were great my first attending would belittle me in front of patients (like telling them I was a "little girl who didn't know anything" when I would ask questions) and I ended up having to be switched to a different team because that attending wasn't ever suppose to have a student to begin with. Overall it was a miserable time for me but we will see how my other rotations with VA time go.

 

[olemissbabydoc]

Working on VA medicine makes suicide seem like a sane option.

QOTD. 👍

 

[MedMan25]

...

 

[tjamrose]

I found VA rotations extremely rewarding and the benefits great.

Pros:

1. Good hours. Never worked weekends. Had time to spend with my family.
2. More hands on experience. My ICU and surgery rotations were invaluable.
3. More attention from your preceptor
4. Great pathology. Most of the patients at the VA neglected their medical care.
5. Talking to students on other rotations I found I had much more experience with notes, H&Ps, procedures and patient history taking than my other peers.
6. No Call!
7. The allied staff were unbelievably great to work with.
8. Free housing
9. Best Geriatric service I have been around. The palliative care floor was inspiring to me.
10. EMR. Lots of peopel complain about it but I have my own templates and find actually having to type up the H&P and notes instead of clicking is much better experience for me.
11. PX is pretty affordable and you will find good deals on occaision. Decent place to get snacks because the cafeteria is aweful.

Cons:

1. Majority were old men. Only a couple of women. Did see a great splenectomy but on the other hand when I did GI I didn't have to deal with what my attending called "Motility Clinic" which she assures me is a great thing.
2. Food is sooooo bad. I mean bad! and expensive
3. Occaisionally there were some really slow days.
4. There are times ancillary staff is slow. It can be very frustrating.
5. All food closes early. Cafe at 230 and the px at 4pm. If you don't get down there early and you work late you are stranded.

I went back fourth year for all my surgery rotations because the hours are amazing as far as surgery is concerned and I get to be first assist almost every single time.