What are ur hours like on surgery rotation?

[madMSII]

Im starting surgery soon, and was wondering what time u usually start and end... and how many hours do u get to study everyday?

From what I have heard from my classmates, hours for general surgery month is from 5AM-5-6 PM..

what are your hours like on surgery/how much do u study a day?

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[RoadRunner17]

Just finished the rotation. I woke up at 0400 most days to be at the hospital by 0500 to preround on my patients and have my notes done by 0600 rounds. We usually finished by 0730 and spent the rest of the day in the OR and/or clinic. We usually had afternoon lectures or rounded with the team in the afternoon and we were usually done by 1700. Some days I didn't get home until 1900-2000. Before that I usually looked up the history and indications for the next day's cases as well.

For me, studying was basically done on the weekends. I'd use the small bits of free time between OR cases or at Grand Rounds to review, but the bulk of actual learning was done on the weekends. In the evening when I got home, I would just watch TV or read briefly about a topic I ran into that day. All in all, you're going to be pretty tired by the end of the day so I would use that time to rest and decompress so you don't burn out in the middle of the rotation.

 

[AlexMorph]

Just finished the rotation. I woke up at 0400 most days to be at the hospital by 0500 to preround on my patients and have my notes done by 0600 rounds. We usually finished by 0730 and spent the rest of the day in the OR and/or clinic. We usually had afternoon lectures or rounded with the team in the afternoon and we were usually done by 1700. Some days I didn't get home until 1900-2000. Before that I usually looked up the history and indications for the next day's cases as well.

For me, studying was basically done on the weekends. I'd use the small bits of free time between OR cases or at Grand Rounds to review, but the bulk of actual learning was done on the weekends. In the evening when I got home, I would just watch TV or read briefly about a topic I ran into that day. All in all, you're going to be pretty tired by the end of the day so I would use that time to rest and decompress so you don't burn out in the middle of the rotation.

agree with whats been posted

 

[FSU2013]

I worked basically m-f 8-6 plus prerounding for 1-2h. Some days I got out earlier, some days later. We took q4 in-house call and didn't get post-call days. If 4th day was a weekend, we took a 24h call shift. Studying after getting off, weekends or when on call between traumas.

I suspect our hours are different than most since we follow a 1-on-1 preceptor model.

 

[cofcemt]

M-F, Up at 4, pre-round 5-6, rounds at 6, OR till 1800 (at least).

Required to be there at least 1 weekend day/wk -- 6a-4/5p.

 

[MilkmanAl]

One of my months was 5-8:30 or so, and the other was 5:30-6.

 

[st2205]

Usually 6:30-7:00 until about 2:00 or 3:00. Some nights not until 7:00 or 8:00. No weekends, I don't think.

 

[todds]

Got in around 5am, left at 5-6pm. Then call 24-30 hours calls q4 or q6 depending on service. If you're efficient, carry photocopy of your review text or print out chapters of a review book and carry it with you in the back of your scrubs. Challenge yourself to get some reading done every time you have 5-15 mins to spare. You'll have short breaks every time the attending goes off to chat with another attending during rounds, in between OR cases where you're just waiting for the pt to get to the OR room. Lots of student just play on their phone or watch tv in the lounge during this time but make sure you study in these spurts.

I guarantee you if you read in short spurts like this, you can pretty much do a good chunk of your reading while at the hospital - i got 1-2 hours of studying done with intervals like this- leaving free time once you get home. Just dont make excuses for yourself that you need perfect conditions for studying, just adapt and dont make excuses. Do questions on off days or post call days if you got some sleep. I did it like this, got honors in rotation and had a somewhat manageable life during it.

 

[han14tra]

On trauma surgery right now. My hours are 4:30am until 8pm 5 days a week. And, then there is trauma call. So on Saturday I came it at 4:30am and left at 9am on Sunday. Trauma call is 30 hours but they left me go a little early.

:cry: I hate this.

 

[Mace1370]

We do 4 weeks general surg, 2 weeks anesthesia, then three 2 week blocks of different subspecialties.

For general, hours were 5-5:30 am to 5:30-6pm most days. Some days went a little longer, but rarely later than 7pm. We had to do 1 weekend day each week of general and 3 overnight calls (which they let you go home at 12pm the next day). My chief resident was very nice and let me skip two of my four weekend days.

The subspecialty hours are pretty random. It really depends on the intern/residents who are on the rotation at the same time you are.

 

[Law2Doc]

A lot if you guys had it easy. When I did surgery clerkship we rounded at 5:30 am, so you needed to pre round before then, which could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. Normal days ended around 6pm. We did Q3 so when it was your turn you stayed on overnight with the intern for the 30 hour shift and got a post call day. You basically got one golden weekend, one black weekend and two split weekends per month. Probably averaged around 80ish hours per week, longer if you were slow at pre rounding. No real point counting hours -- you pretty much lived and breathed surgery during that block. Not sure how it plays out now that most places use night float and interns have more limited hours. It's harder to make the med students stay when you are sending the interns home.

 

[Mace1370]

A lot if you guys had it easy. When I did surgery clerkship we rounded at 5:30 am, so you needed to pre round before then, which could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. Normal days ended around 6pm. We did Q3 so when it was your turn you stayed on overnight with the intern for the 30 hour shift and got a post call day. You basically got one golden weekend, one black weekend and two split weekends per month. Probably averaged around 80ish hours per week, longer if you were slow at pre rounding. No real point counting hours -- you pretty much lived and breathed surgery during that block. Not sure how it plays out now that most places use night float and interns have more limited hours. It's harder to make the med students stay when you are sending the interns home.

My site seems to have no problems making med students do 30 hour calls, despite the fact that interns can only be in the hospital for 16 hours at a time.

I don't know about others, but for me once you pass the 70h/week number it is just varying levels of pain and boredom. You're basically at the hospital all waking hours and are usually not getting enough sleep each night.

 

[myhandsarecold]

Surgical ICU

Preround 5:00

Conference 7:00

Round 8:30

Conference 12:00

Afternoon Preround 1:30

Afternoon Round: 3:30

Check Out: 6:00

 

[sylvanthus]

7am - 4ish. But, remember, a freakin nurse is my preceptor. Thank the lord I don't want to go into surgery and am glad to get the fuk outta there.

 

[ZagDoc]

My site seems to have no problems making med students do 30 hour calls, despite the fact that interns can only be in the hospital for 16 hours at a time.

I don't know about others, but for me once you pass the 70h/week number it is just varying levels of pain and boredom. You're basically at the hospital all waking hours and are usually not getting enough sleep each night.

How often are you taking call though? We still have MS3s taking overnight call... but they do like Q7 (and we always let them sleep a bit). I think that's worthwhile without being vindictive. It's good to see what surgery call is like, and alot of the more exciting things happen in the hospital in the middle of the night. I took call as a med student and it definitely helped sell me that I wanted to go into surgery.

 

[Mace1370]

How often are you taking call though? We still have MS3s taking overnight call... but they do like Q7 (and we always let them sleep a bit). I think that's worthwhile without being vindictive. It's good to see what surgery call is like, and alot of the more exciting things happen in the hospital in the middle of the night. I took call as a med student and it definitely helped sell me that I wanted to go into surgery.

I took call 3 times in 4 weeks. It was a worthwhile experience, but only because the resident on night float was great about teaching and generally didn't call me to do stupid stuff.

On the whole thing being vindictive, well it did kind of come across that way to me. I think that has to do with the whole surgery rotation having awful hours and relatively little learning compared to other clerkships, though.

 

[Camrichie]

Hi, do you guys go to the Bronx VA for surgery at all, I might be doing a sub-internship there in a few months. Can you tell me a little about it if yo do?
Thank you

 

[da8s0859q]

Our surgery rotation is 12 weeks long and is divided into chunks at the VA, on various services at our home institution, and the hospital's trauma service.

Overall: alarm set for 0345-0400, hospital by 0430, scutwork and/or prerounds until ~0530 or whenever resident rounds would be, then lecture or M&M or sometimes nothing, then OR cases or clinic or floor work from 0730-1730 or earlier if things finished up ahead of time. If a case runs late and skin isn't closed until it's almost dark out, then that's just how it goes.

Sometimes, on some services, you could "sleep in" until 0500-0530 or so. And sometimes, you'd luck out and end up going home by around 1600.

Call on the trauma service was overnight, generally turning into 26-30 hour stays, and was q4-q6 for several weeks depending on the group / time of year / etc.

I studied between cases and in down time here and there. Light studying on days off. Never studied when I got home from the hospital.

I was absolutely miserable on that rotation. I had classmates who lived and breathed surgery. Whatever floats your boat, really. I think the "only go into medicine if you can't see yourself doing anything else" line is a little exaggerated, but "only go into surgery if you can't see yourself doing anything else in medicine" is abso****inglutely spot on.