whats' your guys' schedule like on IM / venting

[HiddenTruth]

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so, i just started IM as a M2--and i feel like a scut monkey x 10. I mean it's a 8 week rotation, and the first 1-2 weeks we're supposed to follow the M4's--and my senior partner (M4) is so anal--he will stay there after 12-1pm when rounds are over (and essentially everyone is done unless you're taking admits) so in the process, i am there till 4-5 pm everyday--and i am there at about 6am for pre-rounds. It's ridiculous--what's your guys' sched like? What;s worse is that i don't know anything right now, so im just following him around and doing his hoe work--i HATE kissing ass by doing scut work eagerly but it seems as if that's all we can do at this point.

Ahh--just hoping forthe first 2 weeks to go by and to LEARN something. 😱

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

It may be different for different schools, but no medical student at my med school or during my internship would leave at 12-1pm. If there are admits that may come in, you should stay and try to get involved. Sure, all you do at first is watch, but you should slowly get more involved. That is how medicine is learned.

 

[scootad.]

says the radiologist... 😉

sorry couldnt resist

 

[HiddenTruth]

says the radiologist... 😉

sorry couldnt resist

haha, nice one 😀

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

Its cause I stayed there and learned, even during eternal medicine that I got and Honors and got a spot in radiology. Go home at noon, get your pass, and welcome to FP.

 

[ishaninatte]

ooooh...somebodies got a touchy spot...

 

[RustNeverSleeps]

It really does depend on the school, but for clinical year, the day that you describe is not a very long one. Have you had OB-Gyn or surgery yet? If not, you may be in for a rude awakening.

To answer your question, at my school, the length of your day on IM varies depending on call status. Depending on the team, prerounding starts at 6 or 7 am. Call nights, the unfortunate med student is generally there all night or until the wee hours of the morning. Post call, med students are supposed to get out around noon, but are generally there through the afternoon. Next day: short-call, out in the late afternoon. The cycle ends with pre-call, which generally ends in the early evening. The next day is call. The worst part is that we work 7 days per week, with a full schedule on weekends. If you are lucky, you will get 1-2 days off per month. I don't know if every school is like that, but it sucks. 👎

 

[Whisker Barrel Cortex]

ooooh...somebodies got a touchy spot...

Not really, just trying to throw a jab back after the cheap shot. Its hard to get across intent on an internet message board. I geuss I should have used the 😀 smily.

 

[Espion]

Its cause I stayed there and learned, even during eternal medicine that I got and Honors and got a spot in radiology. Go home at noon, get your pass, and welcome to FP.

That is so very true.

Students approach rotations in the craziest ways. Some treat it like lecture and do everything they can to skip, leave, or get out of it. Then they wonder why they end up with bad evaluations. (Plus they get pissed at those of us who stay past 10:30...A.M.)
The sad, hard truth (at least what they tell us) is that we're in no way bound by any (so-called) 80 hour work week. I worked *much* more than that on surgery, sometimes so far post-call I wasn't even post-call anymore.
But so what? Whining only makes it worse and it makes fellow students who are going through the exact same thing want to strap you down in front of a 3 year old kid so he can cough in your face. (Pediatric torture 😉 )

 

[lindyloohoo]

so what do you all have to say for those of use who left at 12pm AND got honors 🙂 At our school it was ridiculously easy to leave when on the wards and still look like you were busy, when in fact you were at the mall/gym/library. Just make sure you show up to lecture (good time for a 😴 )

 

[fourthyearmed]

so what do you all have to say for those of use who left at 12pm AND got honors 🙂 At our school it was ridiculously easy to leave when on the wards and still look like you were busy, when in fact you were at the mall/gym/library. Just make sure you show up to lecture (good time for a 😴 )

I think you should be ashamed of yourself. Reminds me of one of my classmates who would sneak off to the call room and sleep while the rest of us did his share of the work since we couldn't ever find him!

 

[12R34Y]

6-5 on IM routinely. somtimes later. many on onc or heme were there until 7 or 8 each night.

surgery 0500-0530 to 5-6p. again many are there until 8 or 9.

you get the point. medical school is long.

later

 

[punjabiMD]

your schedule is cake. MS3 life is busy and only difficult depending on your POV.
first month of IM (cards service): 5:30 or 6 until 6-7:30, depending on the load.
second month (GMS in diff. hospital): 6:30 to 5 (or 11PM/1AM if on call), less hours but much more hectic and draining schedule. on the rare occasions we were done early, we studied or we helped out the interns with random things. you're never done until your team is done, and don't forget that.
third month (outpatient): 9 to 5.


OB/GYN: I did it in a small community hospital; hours were up to me. I decided to live in the maternity ward and not miss anything. I had nothing else to do anyways, it was such a small place.

haven't touched surgery yet.

some advice: screw all the politics and annoying people that you will meet. you are there to learn, and with the proper attitude you will walk away from each clerkship much smarter. Never make your team look bad, and never step on other students' toes (learn to share but also put your foot down if necessary).
another note on the attendings/residents/interns/MS4s who are jerks- instead of closing your mind to what they have to say/teach, accentuate the positive aspects of their personalities... you will always learn something useful from them.
also, it helps to do each clerkship as if you are THE specialist... e.g. in ob/gyn rotation, you ARE an ob/gyn doc.

 

[bts4202]

Your schedule is definately a cake walk. You are lucky, appreciate it.

My schedule for IM (3 months):

Telemetry month: 7:30am - 5:00pm and 7:30am - 7:30pm alternating days

Medical Floors month: 7:00am - 5:00pm, call Q4, staying, at least, until late in the night if not all night. Post call left at 2:00pm

ICU month: 7:00am - 5:00pm, call Q4 staying even later than floors and post call left at 2:00pm.

Also, when my team was on call on the weekend I came in also.

 

[phoenixsupra]

Your schedule is definately a cake walk. You are lucky, appreciate it.

My schedule for IM (3 months):

Telemetry month: 7:30am - 5:00pm and 7:30am - 7:30pm alternating days

Medical Floors month: 7:00am - 5:00pm, call Q4, staying, at least, until late in the night if not all night. Post call left at 2:00pm

ICU month: 7:00am - 5:00pm, call Q4 staying even later than floors and post call left at 2:00pm.

Also, when my team was on call on the weekend I came in also.

This schedule is also a cake walk 😉 I thougt IM and cake walk meant the same thing. And you're exerting yourself so very much between those hours. All that finger movement typing up h+p's is soooo draining. 😀

Here's my tip on getting through ANY schedule. Resign yourself to the possibility that you might be there all day and all night. And accept that possibility. Then whatever time they release you seems like a bonus. Time goes by quicker that way. 😉

 

[bts4202]

LOL, true. The most exertional part was running up the stairs to a code.. haha. By the time i got there i usually felt like I was going to be coded as well. Maybe i just need to work out more 😕

Seriously though, i would have loved getting out at 1 everyday

 

[tigershark]

I'm just finishing my IM rotation and overall the hours haven't been that bad.

General wards: 6 to 4 with call q4
Nephrology consult: 8 to 3ish weekends off
Cardiology wards: 7 - noon call q4

What are you people doing that are staying there 12-14 hours a day? Most days, when rounds were over there really wasn't much for anyone to do, maybe write a few D/C summaries and do a couple procedures. Other than that it was just waiting on results from studies/labs. Our residents let us go read/study/whatever in the middle of the day while nothing was going on.

 

[punjabiMD]

I'm just finishing my IM rotation and overall the hours haven't been that bad.

General wards: 6 to 4 with call q4
Nephrology consult: 8 to 3ish weekends off
Cardiology wards: 7 - noon call q4

What are you people doing that are staying there 12-14 hours a day? Most days, when rounds were over there really wasn't much for anyone to do, maybe write a few D/C summaries and do a couple procedures. Other than that it was just waiting on results from studies/labs. Our residents let us go read/study/whatever in the middle of the day while nothing was going on.

admissions, procedures, scut, etc.

 

[DOtobe]

I was lucky when I did my IM rotation - I did it at a small community hospital without a residency program, so my schedule was the schedule of the different attendings I worked with. I would usually get to the hospital and round with them around 7:30, go to their office afterward, and leave by 5:00-5:30.

And I am going into FP, and I never left at noon on any rotation 😉

 

[supercut]

My schedule on IM as a 3rd year student (now 3 years ago)

DAy 1Long call: arrive at about 6am to preround for 8am rounds. Stay all night taking admits.

DAy 2 After having been up most of the night, stay until about 5 pm We had a full regualr working day post call with rounds, noon lecuture afternoon quick rounds with residents and a student lecture

Day 3: About 6 am to 5 pm, standard working day as outlined in day 2

Day 4: Short call. IN addition to the regular working day, take admission til 3 pm or until the team had admitted 5 pts for the day. (then the long call team takes admits from there...and we never made it to 3 pm...we always maxed out on 5 long before that

Day 5 Standard working day.

Start cycle over again.

Weekends we'd just round and leave, unless on call (there was no short call on weekends) Students got 4 days off per month. That's it. And when one student was off, the others had to see their pts.

I don't recall ever leaving by noon while a student.

Learning on the wards mostly occurs in ways you are not used to. It's probably most analogous to how children learn language and culture. You learn it by being in the environment and just kind of absobing it. At the end of a given day, you usually can't define what you learned, and often feel you didn't learn anything. But in a few months, you will find that you are functioning well in the enviroment, and things start to make more sense. I think it's a good idea to hang around for the admits. Have you written any H&P's? IF not, maybe you should..being able to write a good H&P, and do it quickly is a very basic skill that you will need to succeed in almost any specialty.

 

[HiddenTruth]

Learning on the wards mostly occurs in ways you are not used to. It's probably most analogous to how children learn language and culture. You learn it by being in the environment and just kind of absobing it. At the end of a given day, you usually can't define what you learned, and often feel you didn't learn anything. But in a few months, you will find that you are functioning well in the enviroment, and things start to make more sense. I think it's a good idea to hang around for the admits. Have you written any H&P's? IF not, maybe you should..being able to write a good H&P, and do it quickly is a very basic skill that you will need to succeed in almost any specialty.

well said --appreciate the comments everyone--totally understand. Yea, we have a small team so I have been taking admits 3x/week, and one day is outpt clinic in the afternoon after rounds--so have been there until 5pm everyday--and on call, exactly like you described. I've done 6-7 H and P's and it's my 6th day of the rotation--so not bad--you're right that the learning is very difft..and you're absolutely right about the functioning on the wards theory--the first day, i was following my senior partner and had absolutely no idea what to write on notes, h and p's, etc. But now, I have my own pts and do the H&P's witht he resident --been going well--the only problem is that I'd like to read more on my own, but usually too physically drained by the time I come home-- so lakcing in that aspect. Thanks for all your guys' in put--we all have very similar schedules it seems like.

 

[kutastha]

Sounds pretty nice. My inpatient IM was 6:30 am until 6-7 pm daily. No overnight calls, but we did weekends, meaning a half day one weekend day, and a full day the next. There was a spot where I had 19 days in a row at the hospital.

Surgery's hours are certainly much more intense. 4:30 am until 7-8 every day takes its toll.

Third year's been an experience, but I am looking forward to being done in Feb.

 

[mpp]

Six day schedule here...

Day 1...short call...admit patients between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m., work until you're done, usually around 5 p.m. or so, sometimes up until 9 p.m. I'm usually in a littler earlier than 7 a.m. since I have to pre-round before morning report at 8 a.m.

Day 2...normal day...pre-round to be done by 8 a.m. morning report. Depending on number of patients I am usually in around 6:30 or 7 a.m. Usually done for the day around 4 p.m., some times later depending on how many patients I'm discharging.

Day 3...long call...no morning rounds, you arrive at the hospital at 1 p.m. and admit patients from 2 p.m. until 7 a.m.

Day 4...post call...your last admits are at 7 a.m., morning report at 8:00. Usually leave around 3 p.m. and definitely by 7 p.m.

Day 5...normal day...as above

Day 6...day off

Then you start the cycle again. On weekends I don't have to pre-round but rounds start at 7 a.m. Unless I'm on call on the weekends I am usually done by 1 p.m. or so. So technically 'call' is q3 meaning we admit patients every third day...but every other call is short call.

There are caps for admits of 3 patients on short call and 5 patients on long call, however bouncebacks and ICU transfers often don't count toward the cap.

 

[RustNeverSleeps]

mpp, if I am reading your schedule correctly, you have long call q6 and a day off every 5 days? That's a pretty nice schedule. There seems to be a lot of variability in what people are reporting -- does anyone have a sense of the average hours for the IM rotation? At my school we work well over 100 hours per week (with most attendings) and only have 1-2 days off per month. What's really bad is that weekends are like a normal day -- we don't get out any earlier because it's a Saturday or Sunday and still have long call on weekends. This seems to be longer hours than most people have reported in this thread, but what's really frustrating is that many of the doctors still say something to the effect of "students at this med school do no work." Do attendings and residents everywhere act like that towards med students? 👎

 

[Idiopathic]

No. Our school doesnt beat up students, although I am in the middle of 12 straight days (5:30-6:00 most days...7:30 tonite) and some people get stuck with 19 straight. We do not take call though. The written rule is no shift longer than 12 hours, although on OB/GYN I rarely worked a shift shorter than 12 hours.

But no one ever looks at you and says: "you are in the middle of 19 straight...go home."