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I was just curious ... I'm not in medschool yet but what is third year like? How long are your days? How often do you take exams etc... How's life in the hospital?
What's 3rd year like?
- Thread starter darkhorse
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It is cool. Hours are dependent on the rotation; internal medicine may be from 630am-4pm m-f, and 7am-1pm on a weekend day, with call (staying overnight) anywhere from every fourth night to every sixth night.
You have gone through a lot of nonsense, memorization, etc to get to this point, so you appreciate it! You are a part of the medical care delivery team. You may write orders, you definitely write notes, perform history and physicals on patients, and come up with treatment plans.
It's all good fun. Very enjoyable.
You have gone through a lot of nonsense, memorization, etc to get to this point, so you appreciate it! You are a part of the medical care delivery team. You may write orders, you definitely write notes, perform history and physicals on patients, and come up with treatment plans.
It's all good fun. Very enjoyable.
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It's good to not be stuck in class or memorizing fourteen million insignificant facts. It's good to see patients and apply some knowledge to the real world. It's good to interact with the various specialties and figure out what you're going to do with the rest of you life.
It's not all good though. Your hours are worse than the first 2 years (not usually as miserable though). Your grades become subjective for the most part which sucks horribly. It can be tough interacting with the millions of physician personalities and having to be at their beckon call. You're usually changing rotations just at the time when you're finally getting comfortable with one.
Hours are EXTREMELY variable. Surgery for me was 4:00-5:00am - 5:00-10:00pm (usually ~7pm) on non-call days. Our call was only ~q5-6 on surgery which was very nice considering the residents were q2-3. OB hours are similar. Psych/Family have great hours of 8-5 or less.
Life in the hospital as a student is pretty good. Usually a decent amount of downtime/study time overall on most rotations. A chance to interact with classmates you have never talked to. Purely school/hospital dependent.
Exams are usually at the end of each core rotation (Peds, OB, Psych, Family, Medicine, Surgery). So about 1 exam every 6-8 weeks or so depending on your school.
Overall 3rd year is a great learning experience but you couldn't pay me to do it again. 4th year is what it's all about.
It's not all good though. Your hours are worse than the first 2 years (not usually as miserable though). Your grades become subjective for the most part which sucks horribly. It can be tough interacting with the millions of physician personalities and having to be at their beckon call. You're usually changing rotations just at the time when you're finally getting comfortable with one.
Hours are EXTREMELY variable. Surgery for me was 4:00-5:00am - 5:00-10:00pm (usually ~7pm) on non-call days. Our call was only ~q5-6 on surgery which was very nice considering the residents were q2-3. OB hours are similar. Psych/Family have great hours of 8-5 or less.
Life in the hospital as a student is pretty good. Usually a decent amount of downtime/study time overall on most rotations. A chance to interact with classmates you have never talked to. Purely school/hospital dependent.
Exams are usually at the end of each core rotation (Peds, OB, Psych, Family, Medicine, Surgery). So about 1 exam every 6-8 weeks or so depending on your school.
Overall 3rd year is a great learning experience but you couldn't pay me to do it again. 4th year is what it's all about.
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Third year is very interesting. You spend the two years previous cramming in a bunch of facts about obscure diseases that seem like they have no relationship to real life, then in third year you meet patients and see that these diseases actually exist, and you find out that you might actually be able to use this knowledge to help people.
You also learn skills such as blood draws, reading EKG and X-rays, tapping lungs and spinal fluid, taking histories and physicals. It's a huge step up from previous years. You meet a lot of very interesting people - physicians, nurses, patients, secretaries, all who seem a little crazy from spending too much time in the hospital...
It also means more work (at least for me). The first two years were pretty slack - I cut most of my classes, and studied at home 3-4 hours a day. That's all. Now I go to the hospital 8-3 or 8-4 M-F (I study in Israel, so I have an easier schedule than they do in the states. No scut work!), and take call usually once a week until 10 pm or so.
You also learn skills such as blood draws, reading EKG and X-rays, tapping lungs and spinal fluid, taking histories and physicals. It's a huge step up from previous years. You meet a lot of very interesting people - physicians, nurses, patients, secretaries, all who seem a little crazy from spending too much time in the hospital...
It also means more work (at least for me). The first two years were pretty slack - I cut most of my classes, and studied at home 3-4 hours a day. That's all. Now I go to the hospital 8-3 or 8-4 M-F (I study in Israel, so I have an easier schedule than they do in the states. No scut work!), and take call usually once a week until 10 pm or so.
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