What's been your favorite thing about the third year of medical school?

[suizyme09]

Just figured I'd throw it out there and see what everyone has liked about Med3 if anything at all!

I would say doing surgery on OB/GYN. Even though I don't want to go into the specialty I loved scrubbing in on C-sections, open hysterectomies, and the lengthy ovarian tumor burden reduction surgeries in Gyn/Onc. I got to first assist a number of times which was a lot of fun, but I still got to get my hands dirty and help most of the time when the residents were scrubbed in as well.

Share your thoughts if you want!

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[olemissbabydoc]

Just figured I'd throw it out there and see what everyone has liked about Med3 if anything at all!

I would say doing surgery on OB/GYN. Even though I don't want to go into the specialty I loved scrubbing in on C-sections, open hysterectomies, and the lengthy ovarian tumor burden reduction surgeries in Gyn/Onc. I got to first assist a number of times which was a lot of fun, but I still got to get my hands dirty and help most of the time when the residents were scrubbed in as well.

Share your thoughts if you want!

Patient Care! It's a lot easier to spend 12+ hours a day doing something when it's possible you're making a difference in someone's life.

Specific experience - probably delivering my first baby. Amazing.

 

[2012mdc]

Trauma was exhausting but some of the stuff I saw/did was incredible.

I also enjoyed Peds a lot more than I thought I would (especially when the parents were well-adjusted and not crazy)

 

[Rollo]

Bunch of things. First thing that came to my mind was when I did circumcision for the first time (got to do it total of 3 times).

I have more to add later though.

 

[HalladayWeekend]

My favorite thing is more of a general one- actually being able to use the multitude of facts we learned during the first two years and apply them to the management of patients. I also very much enjoy being able to write and give presentations- two skills that are used very little (if at all) during M1 and M2.

 

[Pharmacol90]

Third year sounds exciting. I hear the best part is that by the end of MS3, you get better idea on your specialty of interest. Can hardly wait.

 

[Rollo]

Third year sounds exciting. I hear the best part is that by the end of MS3, you get better idea on your specialty of interest. Can hardly wait.

For some it's much earlier. I don't have the exact number but I imagine most people figure it out by the middle of 3rd year because you will have done good portion of the core rotations and let's face it, most specialties are represented with those 6 rotations (peds, ob, psych, fam, internal, surgery).

 

[officedepot]

I love getting to go home early and take a nap! Third year pretty much blows all the way around. I only liked a rotation if I got done at 3 or so most days. Otherwise it sucked lol.

 

[Siverhideo1985]

Time actually passing at a reasonable rate when I'm doing clinical stuff...I think that's the biggest change. Thinking back to 2nd year and boards time I always felt like the minutes were ticking away so slowly when studying and at the end of the day you were left with the feeling that the day flew by and you didn't get nearly enough done. Now my days are often longer but they pass fast and I feel more accomplished for the most part.

 

[MilkmanAl]

My favorite thing: residents who appreciate that med students don't get anything out of sitting around and shadowing admission H&Ps. That is, the ones who told me to do notes and go home and the ones who had me do stuff were definitely the best.

 

[JimmyChitwood]

Learning (more) relevant information

 

[GoSpursGo]

Waking up at 5:30. Whoops, oh wait...

But seriously, putting faces with the stuff we're learning. It's a lot easier to get up and go learn from actual patients where we might be making a tiny difference rather than slaving away at books mindlessly for hours on end.

 

[SlickNickMD]

Doing procedures-LPs, paracentesis, thoracocentesis etc
Talking to kids

Can't wait till surgery

 

[VoiceofReason]

Doing procedures-LPs, paracentesis, thoracocentesis etc
Talking to kids

Can't wait till surgery

you've been doing thoracenteses?..

 

[mrwesticles]

Just not sitting in a lecture hall all day is nice enough.

It's also good to be around non-medical people in the form of patients. For a while I forgot the rest of the world existed.

 

[suizyme09]

Learning (more) relevant information

I'm enjoying the weeding out of useless facts and learning more about what's actually clinically useful for sure...Homan's sign anyone?

 

[bleeker10]

I second the comment about peds. If I didn't wanna go into ortho (or surgery in general) I would do peds. I'm actually thinking about doing pediatric ortho. I like that the kids just wanna laugh and get better so they can play.

Also I like not having to use all my free time to study for the next test like in M1-M2. It's nice to have free time in the evenings and on the weekend outside of the daily reading I do. Makes it seem more like a job and less like school.

 

[DrYoda]

Free cookies from the Dr.'s lounge.

 

[xanthomondo]

THe best part of third year was the end of it

 

[2012mdc]

THe best part of third year was the end of it

Real talk. Especially when that end is the end of OB

 

[suizyme09]

All the people that hate 3rd year so much...what's going to get you through residency when the pressure is stronger, your pager goes off constantly, and your making payments on loans with most of your earned income?

 

[MilkmanAl]

For starters, you get paid and can stop paying to work long hours. You're also able to make changes on patients who need it and are at least somewhat competent at your job. Furthermore, you only rarely have to rotate through services that have absolutely nothing to do with your future career. You can still forbear loans after school, so you'll be able to enjoy your salary, if you so choose. I'm not saying that intern year won't suck more than M3* (because it certainly will), but there are a lot of things that soften the many blows.

*For the record, I actually liked third year quite a lot, for the most part. Labor and delivery can go to hell, however.

 

[ScubaStarved]

x

 

[2012mdc]

All the people that hate 3rd year so much...what's going to get you through residency when the pressure is stronger, your pager goes off constantly, and your making payments on loans with most of your earned income?

Except for intern year I'm going to enjoy what I'm doing. Rads residency won"t be anything like 3rd year. I"ll also be a full doctor so the shadowing aspect is gone. Also not worrying about exams for a grade, just passing the exams. It"ll also be nice to pay off loans instead of accumulating more debt.

 

[1Life]

Discovering what you love is the best thing ever. Knowing that you don't have to deal with rotations that arent going to be your profession. That way you know where you are going which makes residency easier to bear

 

[VoiceofReason]

All the people that hate 3rd year so much...what's going to get you through residency when the pressure is stronger, your pager goes off constantly, and your making payments on loans with most of your earned income?

is this a serious question? residency isn't simply third year on steroids - in residency you're actually doing what you like



third year doesn't suck because theres "pressure" lmao, it sucks because its soul crushing boredom

 

[xanthomondo]

All the people that hate 3rd year so much...what's going to get you through residency when the pressure is stronger, your pager goes off constantly, and your making payments on loans with most of your earned income?

is this a serious question? residency isn't simply third year on steroids - in residency you're actually doing what you like



third year doesn't suck because theres "pressure" lmao, it sucks because its soul crushing boredom

Seriously. If my pager goes off at 3am during a residency in ophtho for a 20 year old woman who refused the epidural going into labor, I'll just quit.

 

[ScubaStarved]

x

 

[SlickNickMD]

you've been doing thoracenteses?..

Well the extent of my involvement on the thoracocentesis and first LP was injecting the lidocaine, on my second LP I was allowed to do the tap


I performed every step of the paracentesis last week on my own, being directed by an attending of course

 

[username456789]

Serious answers:


#2. Acknowledgement from the team/attending for those (admittedly rare) occasions when I've had an idea which changed management, or caught a mistake, or just had a superior knowledge base that was somehow relevant. Could be as simple as nailing a patient's assessment and plan, or taking SCDs off a patient receiving therapeutic heparin with unknown deep veins, or just taking away a cup of water from an NPO patient, but it's always nice when you get to contribute and are not just another body sucking up O2.

While I don't disagree that these things can be nice, I think it speaks very well to just how mind-numbingly dreadful third year can really be. When someone makes a list of "favorite things from M3" and the second item is essentially "being patted on the back for the rare occasion I contribute anything of worth, no matter how insignificant", that's pretty telling.

 

[ucsfstudents]

Third year was a great opportunity to test out the different specialties.

 

[xanthomondo]

While I don't disagree that these things can be nice, I think it speaks very well to just how mind-numbingly dreadful third year can really be. When someone makes a list of "favorite things from M3" and the second item is essentially "being patted on the back for the rare occasion I contribute anything of worth, no matter how insignificant", that's pretty telling.

Haha I couldn't agree more. Some people will just glamorize anything trivial thing to make themselves feel better about third year sucking so badly.

Third year was a great opportunity to test out the different specialties.

Yeah, you get to test out a whopping 5-10% portion of specialties.

 

[ScubaStarved]

x

 

[MilkmanAl]

Wait, you have to do research to contribute? Somehow, I don't buy that.

 

[ScubaStarved]

x

 

[officedepot]

While I don't disagree that these things can be nice, I think it speaks very well to just how mind-numbingly dreadful third year can really be. When someone makes a list of "favorite things from M3" and the second item is essentially "being patted on the back for the rare occasion I contribute anything of worth, no matter how insignificant", that's pretty telling.

agree. But that's part of the process. We are students. We do not know how to actually treat patients and what to do as 3rd years. Don't really start to do more of that stuff till 4th year. Still have tons of oversight as interns that decreases as you move through.

The goal as a 3rd year should be to learn a ton, figure out what field you want to do, and contribute as much as you can (despite how little it may be). In all honesty I found that interns (medicine ones - not the douche surgery ones) rely on students more than you think.

 

[da8s0859q]

Favorite things:

1. Residents and attendings who remember that they too were medical students at one point.

2. Residents and attendings who realize that med students are there to learn. Off of that -- the moments where you're learning clinically useful information.

3. People who have maintained their sense of humor through all this ****.

4. The fact that no matter what you're doing, it ends in a matter of weeks -- so if you like it, you enjoy it while it lasts, and if you don't, it's gonna be over soon anyway.

5. Days where I get to sleep in.

6. Classmates who like or hate what we're doing at the time as much as I do.

All the people that hate 3rd year so much...what's going to get you through residency when the pressure is stronger, your pager goes off constantly, and your making payments on loans with most of your earned income?

How you can compare third year of medical school to being an MD who's completing a residency in a chosen specialty is beyond me.

 

[suizyme09]

How you can compare third year of medical school to being an MD who's completing a residency in a chosen specialty is beyond me.

It's medicine! I'm working with patients and doctors and spending all day in the hospital. I may not enjoy every specialty I've rotated through so far but I love the learning and the people around me and I take advantage of that.

I've always been of the opinion that if you want to be happy if your career it should be something that you enjoy even when you're overworked, tired, and not paid (or paying to do it). I'm having a great time as a third year especially compared to the first two but I understand that is not a common experience.

 

[username456789]

I think you misunderstood. Guy complains about third years' contributions as being trifling and insignificant, to which I question, "compared to what?"

I actually think (good) third year students are quite capable of contributing, albeit only at certain points, and argue that third year is the first time in most students' education which they'll "contribute" anything. Not to say contributing is the only measure of time well spent, but it's a verb he chose and which I find highly ironic given that the first two years of medical school consist of browsing Facebook at the back of an auditorium for 5+ hours/day.

I worked for several years before medical school (and have held a multitude of different jobs since the age of 15), so forgive me if I tend not to pigeonhole my worldly contributions into two years of preclinical medicine.

As far as "compared to what?", I'd offer "compared to just about any other job", as well as "compared to 4th year when [in my institution] we are finally allowed as sub-I's to independently care for patients including literally developing your own differential, working up the patient as such, putting in/signing your own orders, doing discharge summaries (annoying as they are), and a litany of other things that generally don't fall under the purveyance of 3rd year activities." After feeling and acting like an adult for most of my adult life, 3rd year is a bit of regression. Sure, much of it is a necessary evil as - regardless of our past experiences - we really are neophytes when it comes to managing patients, but that doesn't mean that 3rd year isn't frustrating some of the time.

Don't get me wrong, I realize that I was often fortunate in the amount of "autonomy" interns/residents/attendings afforded me during 3rd year compared to a lot of my peers, but again you spend most of those 12 months like an abused puppy hoping your master will toss you the tiniest scrap of food because you didn't accidentally kick over your water dish today in a fit of excitement over the butterfly you saw dart across the kitchen.

 

[da8s0859q]

It's medicine! I'm working with patients and doctors and spending all day in the hospital. I may not enjoy every specialty I've rotated through so far but I love the learning and the people around me and I take advantage of that.

I've always been of the opinion that if you want to be happy if your career it should be something that you enjoy even when you're overworked, tired, and not paid (or paying to do it). I'm having a great time as a third year especially compared to the first two but I understand that is not a common experience.

I enjoy the learning, but I've met a lot of people who have made enjoying, well, the people a difficult thing. Much more so on surgery than on medicine previously.

I think it's great that you think you'll enjoy medicine when you're overworked and tired as someone whose signature actually means something. As for me, I'm just hoping that there will be a big difference between M3 (lots of obligatory rotations, lowest man on totem pole, still being a student, etc.) and residency (some obligatory off-service rotations during intern year, but chosen specialty thereafter; learning and eventually practicing medicine; being an honest-to-goodness MD; etc.).

 

[olemissbabydoc]

Doing procedures-LPs, paracentesis, thoracocentesis etc
Talking to kids

Can't wait till surgery

Procedures rock.

 

[suizyme09]

I enjoy the learning, but I've met a lot of people who have made enjoying, well, the people a difficult thing. Much more so on surgery than on medicine previously.

I think it's great that you think you'll enjoy medicine when you're overworked and tired as someone whose signature actually means something. As for me, I'm just hoping that there will be a big difference between M3 (lots of obligatory rotations, lowest man on totem pole, still being a student, etc.) and residency (some obligatory off-service rotations during intern year, but chosen specialty thereafter; learning and eventually practicing medicine; being an honest-to-goodness MD; etc.).

I'm sure despite the longer hours and more stress Residency will probably be much better than 3rd year haha