What's it like?

[HopefulDoc1984]

i was just curious as to what the third and fourth years are like. how long are normal days/weeks? do you have written exams? do you get to participate or just observe? thanks much for the insight!

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[CCLCMer]

i was just curious as to what the third and fourth years are like. how long are normal days/weeks?

It depends on the rotation. Surgery and OB/gyn are two of the more infamous rotations for having long days and lots of nights, weekends, and overnight call. Sub-internships (where you're functioning like an intern as a fourth year student) also have long hours. Family medicine (which is what I'm doing now) has pretty cush hours (8-5) and no call.

do you have written exams?

Not at CCLCM, but this is a pretty unusual curriculum. A lot of people at other schools do have to take shelf exams at the end of each rotation. The students in the main Case program take a cumulative, computer-based multiple choice exam every 16 weeks during third year (four exams total). We take these cumulative exams too, but they don't count for us because we don't get graded at CCLCM.

do you get to participate or just observe?

We're expected to participate to the fullest extent we can based on our level of training. Even as first and second years, we were expected to interview patients, take blood pressures, whatever we could do.

thanks much for the insight!

Sure. Good luck.

 

[vtucci]

Yes, we have written exams on every service. We have shelf exams in family, medicine, peds, surgery, neuro and psych. We have homegrown exams in Ob and EM. We even have an oral examination in OB.

Hours- variable by service and team

Family: 7:45-5. No weekends.
Medicine: 6:45-7:15 to ? (could be 2, 3, 5, 8 depending on whether your team is first call, second call, overflow etc) and then there is the joy of overnight call. Often 6 days a week
Peds: 7:15 to ? (could be 2, 3, 5 depending on who is on overnight call). Often 6 days a week.
Neuro: 7-5 at TGH or 8-4 at VA, one weekend call.
Psych: 7:15-5 at TGH or 8-5 at VA, multiple nights of call
Surgery: 6-6 four days a week, 6-10 another day, one night of trauma call
OB- week of L&D days 7-5, week of L&D nights 5-7, week of newborn 8-3, week of antepartum 6-5
EM- 8 hour shifts, several from 7-3pm, 3-11pm and overnights 11-7am. Weekend shifts do occur regularly.