What was your least favorite third year rotation?

[Geekchick921]

The title says it all. What is/was yours? Why?

Our halfway point for third year was Friday and I'm just shy of a week into my latest rotation. It's Psych, and while I liked learning about psychiatric disorders in MS-2, I didn't think I would like tis rotation going into it and I was right. This is the first rotation I think I actually hate as opposed to feeling pretty neutral about or actually liking. I'm not on an inpatient psych service and I'm pretty damn bored. Objectively, I know it's not terrible but for me it's already getting to be one of those things that you're excessively irritated by every aspect of something because you don't like it even when it's at its best, like an annoying friend of a friend you can't even stand to hear speak.

I can at least take some small solace in the fact that I'm not alone, and several of my classmates have told me they're also already over this rotation, even at different sites from mine. My last three blocks are the specialty I'm by far most interested in and two others that I think I will like but not love, so I think it's safe to say this is going to be the worst rotation for me.The thought of another 5 weeks of this makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I didn't think about it at the time but having a slightly truncated rotation because of the Thanksgiving holiday is a blessing.

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[sobored]

Ob/gyn is pretty awful. And by awful, I mean I'd rather slit my wrists rather than do it over again.

 

[evilbooyaa]

Worst one for me overall was probably OB/GYN. Outpatient psych is brutally mind-numbingly boring, but our rotation had 5 weeks of inpatient so it was OK for most of those 5 weeks. The cattiness of the residents on OB/GYN overall plus the complete inability for them to trust me with the most simple things in the OR (like tying a 1-handed tie, which I had just successfully learned how to do in the previous rotation, surgery). That combined with the crap hours, including wasting nearly an hour at every sign out (both morning and evening) discussing which nurse was a PITA, which attending f-ed up, which resident (who was not in the room) f-ed up so bad, how they hate each other, etc. etc.

Basically sign-out was such a cluster of female hormones that the one male resident and I just ignored them outside of patient info and talked about whatever.

And don't even get me started on 2 weeks of clinic... basically 90% of the residents didn't want to deal with a med student doing anything. There was about one resident (maybe 2) from each year's class who 1) had their **** together consistently and 2) was enjoyable, in general, to be around. I think the program I rotated at takes 5(?) residents per year. Gyn-onc was cool, IMO, but surgeries are longggggg.

Family Med was kind of boring for me as it was purely outpatient, but as it was the end of MS3, I was entrusted with a significant portion of responsibility and all the residents were super nice.

 

[KinasePro]

Hands down Internal Medicine was the worst for me. It was the only rotation during 3rd year where I was legitimately treated like the team's own personal bitch. I learned more about social work than clinical medicine, and also got shafted with chasing down passive-aggressive medical subspecialty consults multiple times each day (ironically, acquiring surgical consults was always very painless and straight-forward...). Also, I somehow ended up on a service that was constantly littered with disasters and social work nightmares (maybe this is just how all of internal medicine is....?). By the last few weeks, I was literally counting down the days until the end of the rotation.

 

[NickNaylor]

Ob/gyn is pretty awful. And by awful, I mean I'd rather slit my wrists rather than do it over again.

Starting OB/GYN on Monday. Definitely the rotation I'm least looking forward to. I'm hoping that it simply meets rather than exceeds (in a bad way) my expectations.

 

[sobored]

Starting OB/GYN on Monday. Definitely the rotation I'm least looking forward to. I'm hoping that it simply meets rather than exceeds (in a bad way) my expectations.

Haha, I hear you man. I was not looking forward to it either, and now I know why. Thankfully I'm down to the final 2 weeks. Good luck with it...you may love it!

 

[yehhhboiii]

Haha, I hear you man. I was not looking forward to it either, and now I know why. Thankfully I'm down to the final 2 weeks. Good luck with it...you may love it!

keep your head up

 

[schizosquirrel]

100% OB-Gyn. Especially if you're a guy. And, god, L&D nurses. A force to be reckoned with. Longest 6 weeks of my life.

 

[JediZero]

Surgery was a) nothing like the rest of medicine and b) full of personalities I'd rather not spend time with.

Hey, at least I learned to suture.

 

[VisionaryTics]

Peds. Like watching paint dry.

 

[alpinism]

Outpatient peds and ob/gyn.

At least some of the psych pts were interesting...

 

[NickNaylor]

Peds. Like watching paint dry.

As a future pediatrician of some type...

 

[happygilmore]

The title says it all. What is/was yours? Why?

Our halfway point for third year was Friday and I'm just shy of a week into my latest rotation. It's Psych, and while I liked learning about psychiatric disorders in MS-2, I didn't think I would like tis rotation going into it and I was right. This is the first rotation I think I actually hate as opposed to feeling pretty neutral about or actually liking. I'm not on an inpatient psych service and I'm pretty damn bored. Objectively, I know it's not terrible but for me it's already getting to be one of those things that you're excessively irritated by every aspect of something because you don't like it even when it's at its best, like an annoying friend of a friend you can't even stand to hear speak.

I can at least take some small solace in the fact that I'm not alone, and several of my classmates have told me they're also already over this rotation, even at different sites from mine. My last three blocks are the specialty I'm by far most interested in and two others that I think I will like but not love, so I think it's safe to say this is going to be the worst rotation for me.The thought of another 5 weeks of this makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I didn't think about it at the time but having a slightly truncated rotation because of the Thanksgiving holiday is a blessing.

Psych is the worst? Have you done IM / Gsurg / OBGYN? I agree with the comments above.

Shirley, you can't be serious.

 

[happygilmore]

As a future pediatrician of some type...

Peds can be fun in the right subspecialty. Helping really sick kids and watching them turn the corner is great.

 

[ruralsurg4now]

This thread should really be "what do you not want to go into" because that's what is going to affect peoples' responses. I think I actually hated all of my third-year rotations, actually. Some of them were boring, such as Peds, because the site had very few patients. We were actually sort of ganging up on kids, which sounds sad, but that's how it happened. In the interim, we were subjected to boring lectures by very nice and friendly but boring attendings. Honestly, as an attending now, I have to think that they were the Pediatric equivalent of VA physicians, where people are like "man, I really don't want to work at all ...I think I'll go to the VA." Most days they just had us sit in a room and read, which we never did. We would just chit chat.

Others were like Ob, where I actively hated everything about the service and everyone on it. When I finished Ob, just to give you an idea, I was walking out and a number of people commented on how I had a huge smile on my face. It was a totally stereotypical experience: female residents who were suffering from PMS 24/7, lots of drama and gossiping that you'd have to sit and listen to and which was not at all interesting, and then being treated like you represented all men whenever they had man problems. Oh, and sometimes we'd actually also do Ob, but that wasn't any better.

I could tell you about the rest of the year, but it was about at the same level as that the whole time.

 

[PTPoeny]

Neurology. The first attending on service regularly sent all 4 students to shadow an intern doing a consult. There were either 1 or 2 consults per day or 20. When there were only a few the residents did them to make numbers and when there were twenty the residents did them because they didn't have time to wait for us to do them and then go over them with us.

For the record, I loved my OB rotation. Not doing OB, but it was a well run rotation and the residents and attendings were great.

 

[Geekchick921]

Psych is the worst? Have you done IM / Gsurg / OBGYN? I agree with the comments above.

Shirley, you can't be serious.

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley. I've actually done IM, Gen Surg, Rads and Neuro so far. IM was my least favorite until now that I'm on psych. Gen Surg has been my favorite so far, easily. I wish I like rads more and Neuro was I interesting but not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I have Ob/Gyn in a few months and I expect that will actually be my favorite as I went into medical school thinking I would become an Ob/ Gyn and nothing has changed my mind about that.

 

[tco]

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley. I've actually done IM, Gen Surg, Rads and Neuro so far. IM was my least favorite until now that I'm on psych. Gen Surg has been my favorite so far, easily. I wish I like rads more and Neuro was I interesting but not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I have Ob/Gyn in a few months and I expect that will actually be my favorite as I went into medical school thinking I would become an Ob/ Gyn and nothing has changed my mind about that.

Actually going through OB/GYN usually changes people's minds.

 

[MilkmanAl]

OB/Gyn was easily the worst for me. I really have nothing positive to say about the specialty at all.

 

[ruralsurg4now]

OB/Gyn was easily the worst for me. I really have nothing positive to say about the specialty at all.

The best part are the patients who all think they're giving birth at all hours of the night, when they're not. Which balances out the other patients who don't know they're pregnant until they give birth.

 

[VisionaryTics]

Actually going through OB/GYN usually changes people's minds.

I liked ob/gyn. And I'm a red blooded heterosexual white male.

I liked the variety of l&d (triage, ultrasound, c section, vaginal, dealing with little changes constantly, high risk, etc) and on gyn I did 3 weeks in the OR with no clinic.

Residents were no BS, but were all reasonable people who got along with everybody, taught, and allowed me to do stuff. I don't mind long hours, and I had just finished 12 weeks of surgery.

On the other hand, an 8 hour day of peds or psych made me want to shoot myself.

 

[ruralsurg4now]

I liked ob/gyn. And I'm a red blooded heterosexual white male.

It's funny how laypeople think that Ob is the most sexual thing and it's just pregnant women who are shrieking and stooling on themselves with mucus and blood oozing from them.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

I liked ob/gyn. And I'm a red blooded heterosexual white male.

I liked the variety of l&d (triage, ultrasound, c section, vaginal, dealing with little changes constantly, high risk, etc) and on gyn I did 3 weeks in the OR with no clinic.

Residents were no BS, but were all reasonable people who got along with everybody, taught, and allowed me to do stuff. I don't mind long hours, and I had just finished 12 weeks of surgery.

On the other hand, an 8 hour day of peds or psych made me want to shoot myself.

Agreed. I liked OB as well.

I was very lucky that I had an awesome chief resident (apparently something of a rarity in OB from what I read here) on my inpatient, who was also my clinic resident. She let me do a lot of procedures in clinic, taught a lot, took me through several deliveries.

I mean come one - delivering a baby is pretty cool.

Worst for me was neurology. Nothing else came close.

 

[tco]

If there's something to be gained from this discussion, it's that every school has a different experience. So, even if you hate your OB rotation, but you've always wanted to do it, try to get an away in early in fourth year before you cross it off of your list.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[happygilmore]

I liked ob/gyn. And I'm a red blooded heterosexual white male.

I liked the variety of l&d (triage, ultrasound, c section, vaginal, dealing with little changes constantly, high risk, etc) and on gyn I did 3 weeks in the OR with no clinic.

Residents were no BS, but were all reasonable people who got along with everybody, taught, and allowed me to do stuff. I don't mind long hours, and I had just finished 12 weeks of surgery.

On the other hand, an 8 hour day of peds or psych made me want to shoot myself.

Different strokes for different folks. I can't figure out what is so terrible about psych or peds, especially w/ 40 hr work weeks.

I look at rotations with 2 factors: What I do at the hospital and what I do in the 7-8 hrs of free time I had each day on Peds/Psych. On rotations where I live at the hospital and then study in my scarcity of free time, those are the days I want to shoot myself.

I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

 

[metopic]

If there's something to be gained from this discussion, it's that every school has a different experience. So, even if you hate your OB rotation, but you've always wanted to do it, try to get an away in early in fourth year before you cross it off of your list.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

IDK I just think OB is just objectively the worst specialty. Obscene liability, bad hours your whole career, pay isn't great for the hours you work, and a healthy % of the work environments are toxic. And that's not even getting into the patient population... no thanks. There isn't a hospital in the country with a nice enough obgyn service to bamboozle me into the hellhole that is obgyn. And based on the average board scores for the specialty, that opinion is widely shared.

 

[tco]

IDK I just think OB is just objectively the worst specialty. Obscene liability, bad hours your whole career, pay isn't great for the hours you work, and a healthy % of the work environments are toxic. And that's not even getting into the patient population... no thanks. There isn't a hospital in the country with a nice enough obgyn service to bamboozle me into the hellhole that is obgyn. And based on the average board scores for the specialty, that opinion is widely shared.

Maybe, but why would you try to convince someone out of doing it, especially if they've wanted to do it for a significant amount of time? Maybe you want midwives delivering your kids... Dunno.

 

[happygilmore]

IDK I just think OB is just objectively the worst specialty. Obscene liability, bad hours your whole career, pay isn't great for the hours you work, and a healthy % of the work environments are toxic. And that's not even getting into the patient population... no thanks. There isn't a hospital in the country with a nice enough obgyn service to bamboozle me into the hellhole that is obgyn. And based on the average board scores for the specialty, that opinion is widely shared.

I agree that it's extremely difficult. Liability and bad hours with some persistent toxicity are things you can't quite experience in a few months. I understand some people love it but choosing a specialty requires more than some interest in the medicine. Furthermore, our interests are heavily influenced by this medical industrial complex - which exists only to serve itself.

I'm not anti-OB. I do think people should make informed decisions though and look at all facets of the specialty.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Different strokes for different folks. I can't figure out what is so terrible about psych or peds, especially w/ 40 hr work weeks.

I look at rotations with 2 factors: What I do at the hospital and what I do in the 7-8 hrs of free time I had each day on Peds/Psych. On rotations where I live at the hospital and then study in my scarcity of free time, those are the days I want to shoot myself.

If I'm bored and miserable at work, that is going to carry over into home.

And this comes back to tco's point. I wouldn't assume that everyone's peds/neuro/psych/whatever rotations were structured similarly to yours. I had some of the worst hours on peds and neuro, and found that neuro in particular had the least consideration for students' time.

 

[Geekchick921]

This thread should really be "what do you not want to go into" because that's what is going to affect peoples' responses. I think I actually hated all of my third-year rotations, actually. Some of them were boring, such as Peds, because the site had very few patients. We were actually sort of ganging up on kids, which sounds sad, but that's how it happened. In the interim, we were subjected to boring lectures by very nice and friendly but boring attendings. Honestly, as an attending now, I have to think that they were the Pediatric equivalent of VA physicians, where people are like "man, I really don't want to work at all ...I think I'll go to the VA." Most days they just had us sit in a room and read, which we never did. We would just chit chat..

Well, that would be all but one rotation in third year assuming you pick one of the core rotations as your specialty, or all of them. I'm curious as to what everyone's least favorite experience was and why. It's not just the subject matter for me (though the consult service leaves much to be desired compared to inpatient or the crisis service), it's the lack of teaching on the first few days, the amount of time that's totally wasted waiting for people or following them around/standing there while they handwrite three pages of consult, etc. The best thing about it is how light my white coat is.

 

[Kaputt]

Psych is the worst? Have you done IM / Gsurg / OBGYN? I agree with the comments above.

Shirley, you can't be serious.

Seriously, psych was amazing. The schedule was ridiculously chill, and there is a finite amount of diagnoses you're expected to know about (depressed? psychotic? manic? ok we're done). Psych was a vacation...then again, my perspective was biased by the fact that I had just finished general surgery prior to psych.

 

[happygilmore]

Well, that would be all but one rotation in third year assuming you pick one of the core rotations as your specialty, or all of them. I'm curious as to what everyone's least favorite experience was and why. It's not just the subject matter for me (though the consult service leaves much to be desired compared to inpatient or the crisis service), it's the lack of teaching on the first few days, the amount of time that's totally wasted waiting for people or following them around/standing there while they handwrite three pages of consult, etc. The best thing about it is how light my white coat is.

I agree that some rotations are poorly organized and some doctors aren't that great. If we look at this as "rotation I enjoy = specialty I chose" then our perception is limited to the reality of a few physicians on a small sliver of the planet as opposed to our vision, ambition, and imagination which are limited only by our concept of possibility.

I would be careful to judge your career choice by the quality of the doctors or the rotation. I'm not saying you are but I know some that have.

 

[happygilmore]

Seriously, psych was amazing. The schedule was ridiculously chill, and there is a finite amount of diagnoses you're expected to know about (depressed? psychotic? manic? ok we're done). Psych was a vacation...then again, my perspective was biased by the fact that I had just finished general surgery prior to psych.

Yup. I can't understand the hate - I can understand that some people get bored, but I liken that to the person. E.g. is it boring to go have coffee and talk to someone for an hour? It depends on who you are talking to. Your favorite movie star? The most boring human on the planet? Psych is as boring or as exciting as the humans involved in the interaction.

 

[KnuxNole]

Some people find psych boring because some say it's not "real medicine", you don't get to do much, very little to no procedures. I know there were people that hated psych in my class. I found it interesting, I liked outpatient more than inpatient. Although talking to schizophrenics were interesting

Worst was Surgery. I was done after a month, and sighed on the inside every day that I had to come in longer than that to finish off the rotation

 

[ruralsurg4now]

Yup. I can't understand the hate - I can understand that some people get bored, but I liken that to the person. E.g. is it boring to go have coffee and talk to someone for an hour? It depends on who you are talking to. Your favorite movie star? The most boring human on the planet? Psych is as boring or as exciting as the humans involved in the interaction.

It's not about boredom. It's about how irritating it is to talk to someone who is psychotic. You could basically just decide to talk to a random wall and get as much out of it.

 

[KnuxNole]

It's not about boredom. It's about how irritating it is to talk to someone who is psychotic. You could basically just decide to talk to a random wall and get as much out of it.

That's how I feel talking to people addicted to Klonopin. Lifestyle changes? Nope! Benzos or bust...

 

[EMDO2018]

That's how I feel talking to people addicted to Klonopin. Lifestyle changes? Nope! Benzos or bust...

I can imagine that male med students don't get to learn much during an obgyn rotation. Women are like that.

 

[Kaputt]

It's not about boredom. It's about how irritating it is to talk to someone who is psychotic. You could basically just decide to talk to a random wall and get as much out of it.

Nahhh, manic and psychotic patients are interesting. They say ridiculous things and you get to watch the drugs work before your eyes. Had a few really disorganized schizophrenics on my inpatient rotation who morphed into lovely people once the antipsychotics kicked in. If anything, the change of pace of psych vs the other rotations is reason enough to enjoy it.

 

[ruralsurg4now]

I never saw any patient with much success from meds, but I was on an inpatient ward that was known for difficult patients. It was irritating because every day I'd talk to people who were confabulation or had the stream of consciousness type of rambling answer. I could lie about what the patient told me if I was that kind of person and nobody would ever know.

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Nahhh, manic and psychotic patients are interesting. They say ridiculous things and you get to watch the drugs work before your eyes. Had a few really disorganized schizophrenics on my inpatient rotation who morphed into lovely people once the antipsychotics kicked in. If anything, the change of pace of psych vs the other rotations is reason enough to enjoy it.

I feel like psych gets a pretty decent combo of being pretty easy and somewhat interesting. Yeah, psychotic patients can be pretty disorganized but I always thought that hearing about all the crazy **** going on in their minds was interesting. Plus, just think to the future where you get paid 200k to sit around, talk to people and prescribe some meds...

 

[happygilmore]

I feel like psych gets a pretty decent combo of being pretty easy and somewhat interesting. Yeah, psychotic patients can be pretty disorganized but I always thought that hearing about all the crazy **** going on in their minds was interesting. Plus, just think to the future where you get paid 200k to sit around, talk to people and prescribe some meds...

Yeah, the worst part is talking to a few psychotic people during your 30-40 clinic hours per week?

Let's see, what sucks in IM, Gsurg or OB? Hmm

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

Yeah, the worst part is talking to a few psychotic people during your 30-40 clinic hours per week?

Let's see, what sucks in IM, Gsurg or OB? Hmm

For real, I think people totally gloss over the whole "hours worked" thing when looking at psychiatry. About 70% spend less than 40hrs/wk seeing patients and 36% spend less than 30hrs/wk.

 

[D elegans]

Only done surgery, IM, and OB/gyn so far but I cannot see anything being worse than surgery. The hours and attitudes blow. I really liked IM although I was burned out by the end and I can understand people hating it. OB/gyn has been fine so far, just coasting, but I think our program seems less malignant than what people are posting here.

 

[evilbooyaa]

This thread should really be "what do you not want to go into" because that's what is going to affect peoples' responses. I think I actually hated all of my third-year rotations, actually.

I very highly disagree. I have no desire to become a surgeon or a psychiatrist, but I truly did enjoy the responsibilities of a MS3 on both surgery (ok I maybe would have liked more hands on exposure like being first assist on a trach/peg or something) and psychiatry (there were a few residents but I essentially worked as a sub-intern with significantly less patients and no ability to order things without the attending signing off).

 

[JediZero]

I mean come one - delivering a baby is pretty cool.

It is! And the one vaginal delivery I was in the room for was not cool enough to compensate for six weeks of boredom. =(

At least I wasn't with residents. Sounds like that doesn't end well for male students...

 

[KnuxNole]

That's why you stick with the male OB residents.

Or the male FM resident doing OB

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

At least I wasn't with residents. Sounds like that doesn't end well for male students...

I've generally felt that female med students have a harder time getting along with female OB residents than male students do.

 

[JediZero]

That's why you stick with the male OB residents.

Or the male FM resident doing OB

Yep. I had two male attendings over 60, with no residents to speak of. Somehow had an estrogen-free OB/GYN rotation...

 

[JediZero]

I've generally felt that female med students have a harder time getting along with female OB residents than male students do.

Well, it sounds like they just have different types of misery. I guess the guys just sit there with their head in their hands and count down the hours as the drama swirls around them, while the females get targeted by/sucked into the drama. Though males are targets, too, apparently... I don't know. This hypothesis is poorly thought-out.

 

[happygilmore]

I've generally felt that female med students have a harder time getting along with female OB residents than male students do.

I noticed this too. Maybe the nonchalance is a positive?

Some of the female med students were trying too hard in my clerkship.