When do you study?

[porthcurno]

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When do you get all your studying done, and how many hours per week? I mean outside of looking up something in the course of treatment. I am finding it difficult with the demands of a nonmedical significant other, bills piling up, chores piling up, being totally beat from call. I am curious how many of us take whole weekend days to cram and how many people are really good and disciplined and do an hour a day.

 

[docscience]

Ditto on the above question.

Also, do you interns/residents do away rotations? I want to do nephrology after my IM residency...hopefully in SD or Portland. Would I be able to do away rotations there? Or is this more of a med school ---> residency thing with away rotations?? And when do you do them? 2nd year before you apply/during application season?

Thanks.

 

[Buzz Me]

When do you get all your studying done, and how many hours per week? I mean outside of looking up something in the course of treatment. I am finding it difficult with the demands of a nonmedical significant other, bills piling up, chores piling up, being totally beat from call. I am curious how many of us take whole weekend days to cram and how many people are really good and disciplined and do an hour a day.

30 minutes of textbook reading a day, most days (more on days off). Several journal articles a week. More questions (e.g. SESAP) as the annual in-service exam approaches.

 

[smq123]

Also, do you interns/residents do away rotations? I want to do nephrology after my IM residency...hopefully in SD or Portland. Would I be able to do away rotations there? Or is this more of a med school ---> residency thing with away rotations?? And when do you do them? 2nd year before you apply/during application season?

Thanks.

You might have a very hard time doing nephrology as an away rotation. You would be hard pressed to try and explain to your program why you couldn't get a perfectly good nephrology experience at your home program. Most residency programs are reluctant to let you do unnecessary away rotations because they have to pay your malpractice insurance while you are on the away rotation.

 

[gutonc]

Ditto on the above question.

Also, do you interns/residents do away rotations? I want to do nephrology after my IM residency...hopefully in SD or Portland. Would I be able to do away rotations there? Or is this more of a med school ---> residency thing with away rotations?? And when do you do them? 2nd year before you apply/during application season?

Thanks.

It is rare, but possible, depending on your program. If the program you go to doesn't have a fellowship in the specialty you're interested in, it's much easier to get an away approved by your home program. Also, since the program you're visiting has its own residents and fellows to take care of, it will be tougher to get it approved by the accepting program.

The few visiting residents I've seen here have been in things that are less common like heart failure/transplant cardiology, bone marrow transplant, hepatology/liver transplant, ESRD/renal transplant and transplant ID (the astute reader will notice something in common with all of those rotations).

I've never seen a visiting resident on our typical subspecialty consult services. Doesn't mean it hasn't happened, just that I'm not aware of it.

 

[docscience]

What about pulm/cc?

Would it be wise to do an ICU rotation elsewhere? As in, where you might want to match for fellowship? or unnecessary?

 

[anonperson]

When do you get all your studying done, and how many hours per week? I mean outside of looking up something in the course of treatment. I am finding it difficult with the demands of a nonmedical significant other, bills piling up, chores piling up, being totally beat from call. I am curious how many of us take whole weekend days to cram and how many people are really good and disciplined and do an hour a day.

I try to do 30min to 1 hour each day reading (aka studying) depending on when I get home.

On days off, maybe 1-1.5 hours of combined reading and practice questions.

It's tough and generally you're pretty tired but it needs to be done.

You can tell pretty easily from whatever in service exam your specialty has, which residents keep up and which don't. And unfortunately those can't really be crammed for.

 

[smq123]

What about pulm/cc?

Would it be wise to do an ICU rotation elsewhere? As in, where you might want to match for fellowship? or unnecessary?

Again, you'd have to ask, but may not even be possible or may be highly frowned upon. At our program, they request that we stay within the health system as much as possible.

It's also probably unnecessary, unless the ICU experience at your home program truly is lousy.

 

[dpmd]

Can't comment on medicine specifically, but the impression I get is that in residency no one does away rotations just because they want to go their for fellowship. They are done when there is an educational need which is lacking at your program.