What do you do after you get back from the wards?

[panicattackmode]

---

Members do not see this ad.

So what do you all do when you get back home from the hospital?

Let me rephrase, what should a good student do when they return from the wards?

For me, on average, they let me go around 5 pm. By the time I'm home and pee and drink a glass of water, it's 6pm. And then I gotta eat and relax a bit right? So now we're at 7-7:30pm.

Should I be "studying" till I go to sleep after this?

Share your routine!

 

[evilbooyaa]

Get home between 5 and 7 usually. Eat dinner, watch TV, etc etc. for at least 2 hours. Read for an hour or look up whatever I need for patients the next day. I'm obviously behind on my case files/UWorld studying for the IM shelf, but I need some time to decompress.

I sometimes just play video games all night if the day is bad, or go to sleep early if I'm behind for a few days.

 

[KnuxNole]

"Should I be "studying" till I go to sleep after this?"

nonono

Think of it like a work day, after you get home, you can wind down and be a regular human!

If you have to read something to present, or any "assignments" eg: a case report/write up, bringing in an article about a disease and discussing it, then you can work on that after getting comfy.

Studying is good if you haven't done any throughout the day. You'll find in the wards that there is for the most part, a decent amount of down time to bring a book and read. There are plenty of days where I ended up doing anywhere from 2-3 hours of reading, in addition to seeing my patients and occasional scut. But like pre-clinicals, it depends on the person how much to put in. Personally, if I haven't done an hour of reading on the rotation, I would set aside an hour for shelf reading. If I did, then open game. But it is NOT like 1st/2nd year where you need to hit a library for hours, or grind the books for hours on end, which is what I like about third year. You have your days off to yourself instead of using evenings or a weekend day to study.

Unless the shelf is looming in a week, then all bets are off 😱

 

[futuredoctor10]

"Should I be "studying" till I go to sleep after this?"

nonono

Think of it like a work day, after you get home, you can wind down and be a regular human!

If you have to read something to present, or any "assignments" eg: a case report/write up, bringing in an article about a disease and discussing it, then you can work on that after getting comfy.

Studying is good if you haven't done any throughout the day. You'll find in the wards that there is for the most part, a decent amount of down time to bring a book and read. There are plenty of days where I ended up doing anywhere from 2-3 hours of reading, in addition to seeing my patients and occasional scut. But like pre-clinicals, it depends on the person how much to put in. Personally, if I haven't done an hour of reading on the rotation, I would set aside an hour for shelf reading. If I did, then open game. But it is NOT like 1st/2nd year where you need to hit a library for hours, or grind the books for hours on end, which is what I like about third year. You have your days off to yourself instead of using evenings or a weekend day to study.

Unless the shelf is looming in a week, then all bets are off 😱

Thanks for this post. I am glad to hear this. I was wondering whether I need to be studying more often after work, because some days I am so exhausted so I literally do nothing -- often for days at a stretch. I am so glad we are at a different place than the long library hours of MS1/2 !

 

[KnuxNole]

Oh yes, I feel ya with that. Been there last year(and sure to come back to that with 1 or 2 MS4 electives), and there are days where after coming home, I want to eat and lie down on my bed. And friday nights on Surgery where I want to sleep like a baby and had to turn down hanging with people.

But, that's not to say there were lots of good times, on most other weekends save Surgery, I went out with people to eat, movies, bars, went to some happy hours on weekdays and played pick up soccer/b-ball games. It's important in 3rd year to have some solid free time(and social time) just like in 1st/2nd year to keep your sanity level strong.

And of course, adequate reading, which I said my piece above. Although you don't need to do excessive reading, not reading at all isn't advised. Basically, a good balance is key, and I'll reiterate that if there is downtime on rotations, take that time to read so that you can be rewarded by relaxing at home 🙂

 

[futuredoctor10]

Oh yes, I feel ya with that. Been there last year(and sure to come back to that with 1 or 2 MS4 electives), and there are days where after coming home, I want to eat and lie down on my bed. And friday nights on Surgery where I want to sleep like a baby and had to turn down hanging with people.

But, that's not to say there were lots of good times, on most other weekends save Surgery, I went out with people to eat, movies, bars, went to some happy hours on weekdays and played pick up soccer/b-ball games. It's important in 3rd year to have some solid free time(and social time) just like in 1st/2nd year to keep your sanity level strong.

And of course, adequate reading, which I said my piece above. Although you don't need to do excessive reading, not reading at all isn't advised. Basically, a good balance is key, and I'll reiterate that if there is downtime on rotations, take that time to read so that you can be rewarded by relaxing at home 🙂

Yep all about balance. It is just such a different feel than the very heavy (weighted towards more) studying from MS1/MS2, where all your day consists of classes and/or studying versus now in the clinical years. So sometimes it "feels" like you are not studying enough, because there is just less time to do that comparatively.

Out of curiosity how many hours do people usually study a wk in third year for shelf exams? might be an interesting poll or thread..

 

[VenusinFurs]

I'm in fourth year and just took step 2. Provided I didn't fail, which I am currently doubting, the rest of my year is gonna consist of doing a whole lot of nothing.

 

[Rollo]

I'm in fourth year and just took step 2. Provided I didn't fail, which I am currently doubting, the rest of my year is gonna consist of doing a whole lot of nothing.

Hallelujah.

As a fourth year, the only studying I have to do is related to my specialty of choice (gen surg). Therefore, it's not as terrible to read something surgical on my downtime. Even during 4th year non-surgical rotations, residents and attendings try to encourage me to read something about their field....sometimes I will just glance over the uptodate article or what have you....but it's definitely not as stressful as it was during 3rd year.