What is the best part about being a med student/resident/physician?

[BrianUM]

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The best part of being in the arm...oops I mean med school is the ice cream...they give you all the ice cream you can EAT

 

[Re3iRtH]

maybe you missed the "med student/resident/physician" part.

You're right, I must have. So maybe us med students shouldn't
contribute to this thread since we aren't residents/physicians yet.
🙄 😀

I'm just busting your balls 😉

 

[Blesbok]

You're right, I must have. So maybe us med students shouldn't
contribute to this thread since we aren't residents/physicians yet.
🙄 😀

I'm just busting your balls 😉

Ya, but last time I checked, the majority of upper level med students spend plenty of sleepless nights in the hospital. 😉

 

[Re3iRtH]

Ya, but last time I checked, the majority of upper level med students spend plenty of sleepless nights in the hospital. 😉

Really.... How often does that happen?
I assumed med-students are on-call at home and get brought in
for a procedure or something but can then go back to their
own bed?

 

[Blesbok]

Really.... How often does that happen?
I assumed med-students are on-call at home and get brought in
for a procedure or something but can then go back to their
own bed?

I wish

At least half of your rotations will require call. Some will be easier than others, but home call is for the attendings.

 

[gujuDoc]

I wish

At least half of your rotations will require call. Some will be easier than others, but home call is for the attendings.

I agree. I know some of my friends tell me they are up for 30 or 36 hours straight when they are on their call nights at the hospital.

 

[78222]

Really.... How often does that happen?
I assumed med-students are on-call at home and get brought in
for a procedure or something but can then go back to their
own bed?

I've been on call 4 nights over the last 9 days. Not the cush kind of call where you get to sleep either.

 

[gujuDoc]

I've been on call 4 nights over the last 9 days. Not the cush kind of call where you get to sleep either.

I didn't even think that sorta cush kinda call still existed in the era of shortage of physicians and too many patients.

 

[Re3iRtH]

I wish

At least half of your rotations will require call. Some will be easier than others, but home call is for the attendings.

But that does not mean working weekends right? I think an
upperclassmen from my school told me she worked a total of 6
weekend days during 3rd and 4rth year.

 

[smq123]

Really.... How often does that happen?
I assumed med-students are on-call at home and get brought in
for a procedure or something but can then go back to their
own bed?

It depends on the hospital and the rotation. It also depends on where you live.

OB is (almost without exception) in-house call. Things happen very fast on Labor and Delivery, so if the student waited to be "called in" for something, the baby would already be out and under the warmer by the time the student got there.

Trauma surg is often in-house call. Depends on the hospital and the resident, though.

IM and Psych can be in-house call, but don't have to be.

Like I said, a lot of this depends on where you live too. You may have the option of "home call," but only if you live within a 10 minute walk of the hospital. If you live any farther, than home call may just not be an option for you.

For me, I think the best part is the knowledge, and the responsibility
that goes with being a physician. Also, no one is going to hate you
for being a doctor.

🙄 Ohhhh....you'll see. Just WAIT and see! The number of people who dislike doctors, don't trust doctors, or absolutely hate the sight of doctors (and will not hesitate to tell you about this fact) will amaze you.

But that does not mean working weekends right? I think an
upperclassmen from my school told me she worked a total of 6
weekend days during 3rd and 4rth year.

Uhh....she's either lying or else is a total slacker. Or you're not remembering what she said correctly.

As a 4th year sub-I, I worked a whole month STRAIGHT - weekends and all. I never got a single day off during that rotation.

As a 3rd year on IM alone, I worked 9 weekends. That may have been only Saturday, or Saturday AND Sunday - I don't remember anymore.

As a 3rd year on surgery, I either worked 6 days a week or 7 days a week.

Weekends are definitely free game during 3rd and 4th year. I'm actually more surprised now when I DON'T have to come in on a Saturday.

 

[45408]

But that does not mean working weekends right? I think an
upperclassmen from my school told me she worked a total of 6
weekend days during 3rd and 4rth year.

are you kidding me? I usually only get four days off in a month, and two of them are on the same weekend, so during every rotation since July, I have a two week stretch without a single day off.

 

[Re3iRtH]

It depends on the hospital and the rotation. It also depends on where you live.

OB is (almost without exception) in-house call. Things happen very fast on Labor and Delivery, so if the student waited to be "called in" for something, the baby would already be out and under the warmer by the time the student got there.

Trauma surg is often in-house call. Depends on the hospital and the resident, though.

IM and Psych can be in-house call, but don't have to be.

Like I said, a lot of this depends on where you live too. You may have the option of "home call," but only if you live within a 10 minute walk of the hospital. If you live any farther, than home call may just not be an option for you.



🙄 Ohhhh....you'll see. Just WAIT and see! The number of people who dislike doctors, don't trust doctors, or absolutely hate the sight of doctors (and will not hesitate to tell you about this fact) will amaze you.



Uhh....she's either lying or else is a total slacker. Or you're not remembering what she said correctly.

As a 4th year sub-I, I worked a whole month STRAIGHT - weekends and all. I never got a single day off during that rotation.

As a 3rd year on IM alone, I worked 9 weekends. That may have been only Saturday, or Saturday AND Sunday - I don't remember anymore.

As a 3rd year on surgery, I either worked 6 days a week or 7 days a week.

Weekends are definitely free game during 3rd and 4th year. I'm actually more surprised now when I DON'T have to come in on a Saturday.

Hmm.. thats odd, she did match into opthalmology.
I thought the thing about 3rd year were the long days, and having to study
even on days that you work. The whole working on the weekend thing
is definately a shock to me. I was planning on working about 1-2 days
on the weekend per month.

 

[Blesbok]

But that does not mean working weekends right? I think an
upperclassmen from my school told me she worked a total of 6
weekend days during 3rd and 4rth year.

She might have said she did NOT work a total of 6 weekend days during 3rd and 4th year, which would be more believable. At least 75% of your rotations are going to require you to work at least one weekend day a week.

 

[Blesbok]

It depends on the hospital and the rotation. It also depends on where you live.

OB is (almost without exception) in-house call. Things happen very fast on Labor and Delivery, so if the student waited to be "called in" for something, the baby would already be out and under the warmer by the time the student got there.

Trauma surg is often in-house call. Depends on the hospital and the resident, though.

IM and Psych can be in-house call, but don't have to be.

Like I said, a lot of this depends on where you live too. You may have the option of "home call," but only if you live within a 10 minute walk of the hospital. If you live any farther, than home call may just not be an option for you.



🙄 Ohhhh....you'll see. Just WAIT and see! The number of people who dislike doctors, don't trust doctors, or absolutely hate the sight of doctors (and will not hesitate to tell you about this fact) will amaze you.



Uhh....she's either lying or else is a total slacker. Or you're not remembering what she said correctly.

As a 4th year sub-I, I worked a whole month STRAIGHT - weekends and all. I never got a single day off during that rotation.

As a 3rd year on IM alone, I worked 9 weekends. That may have been only Saturday, or Saturday AND Sunday - I don't remember anymore.

As a 3rd year on surgery, I either worked 6 days a week or 7 days a week.

Weekends are definitely free game during 3rd and 4th year. I'm actually more surprised now when I DON'T have to come in on a Saturday.

Hell, I feel bad if my resident tells me to take the weekend off.

 

[footballrules]

Among all the hard work and sleepless nights what it is that you enjoy the most and what motivates you to keep moving forward.

From an outsider view.

- You get a job that actually matters. When the stock market is strong, everyone is an expert. When the stock market crashes, nobody knows how the stock market works. When your body is healthy, you are an expert on your own body. When you get sick, you have to seek help.

- Like I said above, you get a job that actually matters. Not that many jobs actually matter. Most jobs in this country can be replaced by a computer program or have a trained monkey do the work. You can't replace a doctor with a computer (you should know what I'm getting at).

- You actually get to learn interesting stuff and keep the brain young.

- People look up to you when you need help.

- Society will always need you no matter what is going on with the world (war, economic depression, etc).

 

[45408]

Hmm.. thats odd, she did match into opthalmology.
I thought the thing about 3rd year were the long days, and having to study
even on days that you work. The whole working on the weekend thing
is definately a shock to me. I was planning on working about 1-2 days
on the weekend per month.

LOL. I'm on overnight trauma surgery call - and I don't plan on sleeping - on the weekend, so your plans are toast. We get four days off per month. If there's a weekend at the end of the rotation, you can get lucky.

 

[lilnoelle]

Hmm.. thats odd, she did match into opthalmology.
I thought the thing about 3rd year were the long days, and having to study
even on days that you work. The whole working on the weekend thing
is definately a shock to me. I was planning on working about 1-2 days
on the weekend per month.

I think a lot of this depends on where you go to school and what rotation you are on. I'm 14 weeks into 3rd year rotations and I haven't worked a single weekend day or had a single night of call. It will be another 2 weeks before I experience call, and then in a week's time I'll have two nights of call.
Then next rotation is OB/GYN, and for us that means one week of bad hours - but even then they're not too bad. We're doing a "night float" type of thing where everyone works a week of nights and everyone works a week of days. I think we do just a week like that out of 6 weeks. Next rotation is Internal Medicine - and I don't know how much weekends/call nights that entails. It could potentially be none if I request to work at our VA for all 8 weeks. And then there is surgery - which again, could entail a lot of call/weekends or could be very little depending on the options I choose. Then there is neuro/psych which means I'll have little to none call/weekends.
In fourth year things could be a lot better or worse depending on the field of medicine I desire to enter and therefore rotate in.
Since I am pretty certain I want to do Family Medicine, I anticipate that my hours will be pretty good.
However, if you want to do a more intense field like Surgery - you better plan on hard hours because not only does the field demand more hours, but you want to be impressive.

 

[lilnoelle]

I really like medical school. I like clinic, I like the patients, I like the constant challenge of not only diagnosis/treatment, but also the challenge of dealing with a wide variety of people. I like helping people, improving their lives, and dealing with psychosocial stuff.
I haven't done much inpatient medicine yet - and so I am not sure how I'll like that part... in fact I'm guessing I won't like inpatient medicine as much as I do working in clinics - but thats all right. Not everyone has to work in the hospital.

 

[deleted77919]

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