Vacation Time During MS-3?

[MaybeADoc]

I've done searches but haven't found anything conclusive.
I have been doing a week long volunteer camp for the past 5 years. It's very important to me. Next year it will be held during the 3rd week of July. Does anybody know if it's possible to get time off during MS-3 Rotations? I suppose even getting off half the week could be acceptable. Any insight? Is there flexibility in the schedules?

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[smq123]

I have been doing a week long volunteer camp for the past 5 years. It's very important to me. Next year it will be held during the 3rd week of July. Does anybody know if it's possible to get time off during MS-3 Rotations? I suppose even getting off half the week could be acceptable. Any insight? Is there flexibility in the schedules?

Well....getting half a week off actually might be problematic.

You'd have to arrange it WELL in advance, and even then, you might have to make up that missed time later.
There isn't a lot of flexibility in schedules, especially as a third year. Getting a day or two off might be okay (again, if you really plan ahead in advance), but half a week is kind of pushing it. You're expected to show up, every day, and there aren't a lot of exceptions to that.

Plus, depending on the rotation, skipping half a week might mean skipping out on an entire component of the rotation. For instance, on OB/gyn, at my site, we spent one week on L&D and another week on night float. Missing half a week would mean missing almost an entire component of that rotation. On peds, we spent one week on well-baby nursery. Again, missing half a week means missing a major part of that rotation.

 

[akpete]

depends on your school. I would think most certainly not during a rotation, but you could possibly take the whole month off.

 

[UCLAstudent]

A girl in my class arranged to miss the first Monday of her surgery rotation because of a weekend cruise that she had scheduled far in advance. She got into a lot of trouble with the attending and it was ultimately reflected in her evaluation, which was poor. Even worse, the attending continued to refer to the incident in front of other med students long after the girl had finished the rotation.

 

[Law2Doc]

depends on your school. I would think most certainly not during a rotation, but you could possibly take the whole month off.

Taking a month off during third year will impact you 4th year schedule, might make it harder to take electives you want, may postpone the time you might want to take Step 2 if you need to boost a lackluster Step 1 score, etc. Most schools who do all the core rotations during third year do not build in any elective time.
I agree with those who say that most schools won't permit you to take a week, or even half a week off. I've seen folks take time off for family health issues and end up having a rough time making up the time. In general, schools try to treat third year like an intro to residency -- you have as little flexibility that year as you will have after med school. Something like a volunteer camp won't sway administrators to revamp your schedule. I would plan on missing it third year. You can do it in 4th year.

 

[45408]

During M3, I only have one vacation month, and most people (including me) use it for an elective. So I really only have one week off (Christmas) this entire year. If you were here, you could schedule your vacation month for July and do it that way, but I really doubt they'd let you miss that much of an actual elective.

 

[elr1983]

I agree with the above--missing a whole week would likely not fly at my school, either. The only reasons for missing days of rotations that have been accepted at my school are conferences, serious illness (like admitted to the hospital illness), family illness/death, you get the idea. In some cases, if it was more than a day, the time had to be made up by taking an extra call or something like that. I'd be surprised if anyone got excused from a rotation to go to a volunteer camp. You always have a choice in what you do...but keep in mind the negative evaluation you might get may end up in your deans letter for residency.

 

[Green Chimneys]

You'll have to check with your schools program. Some schools may allow you to take a vacation month that will not impact your 4th year in near the way that L2D describes. At my school, we have 2 electives in 3rd year, one of which can be used for vacation (essentially by burning a year of vacation that could be used in 4th year). If your school allows something like this, you're golden. You may even consider pushing Step 1 back to the end of that vacation month if the extra time would be helpful. If they don't allow any vacation months during third year, you're going to miss your camp or fail the rotation.

 

[Law2Doc]

If your school allows something like this, you're golden. You may even consider pushing Step 1 back to the end of that vacation month if the extra time would be helpful. If they don't allow any vacation months during third year, you're going to miss your camp or fail the rotation.

OP just bear in mind that having electives in third year (that you can use as vacation) isn't what the majority of med schools do, so I wouldn't really plan on this option.

 

[QofQuimica]

I've done searches but haven't found anything conclusive.
I have been doing a week long volunteer camp for the past 5 years. It's very important to me. Next year it will be held during the 3rd week of July. Does anybody know if it's possible to get time off during MS-3 Rotations? I suppose even getting off half the week could be acceptable. Any insight? Is there flexibility in the schedules?

You need to talk to your student dean. None of us can tell you what the policy at your school is. At my school, you would not be permitted to miss a full week of any required rotation for something voluntary and not related to school like this. Even electives have a limit as to how many days you can miss and still pass the elective. I would see if you could schedule some vacation time in July. If not, like others have said, unfortunately you'll probably have to miss it this year or just go for one or two days (whatever the max number of days per rotation you are permitted to miss is).

 

[elr1983]

I'm sure you can find out easily enough whether your school allows a month of elective/vacation in third year or not. Ask a current third or fourth year, check the website, or email your advisor.

At my school, you can do one of the required 1 month long 4th year electives 3rd year rather than 4th year, and push one of the required 2 month clerkships usually done in 3rd year into 4th year. The other month can be spent doing an elective or on vacation. You will lose these 4 weeks of vacation 4th year. Plenty of people do it this way and are fine with losing 4 weeks of vacation 4th year or having to do a required clerkship 4th year. They're usually people unsure of what they want to do and want the chance to do urology, or neurology, or whatever, third year. If your school offers something similar, it may be worth looking into.

My school also works with people who have reasons to need to take time off and allows 4th year vacation time to be used 3rd year in extreme cases. Going to volunteer camp isn't a circumstance I would think would be approved (things like death in the family, severe illness, etc). And besides, as someone else said, missing an entire week may mean you miss an entire component of that rotation, and even if you're doing the same thing for 4 weeks, do you really want to miss 25% of the experience?