June was a very interesting month for me, largely because my third year of medical school began on June 6th.(1) In most schools I suppose this wouldn't be that big a deal but in med school, your clinical rotations begin during your third year and thus this is your first real try at being a doctor.(2) For some people this can be like trial by fire. For example if your first rotation is with OB/Gyn or Surgery, you automatically get dumped into 4 AM wakeups and weekend call(3) and spend most of your days getting pimped(4) and possibly wiping the sweat off of the attending's brow while a surgery is going on. On the other hand you could get lucky and start with a more relaxed rotation like psychiatry. I clearly got the latter option, that's a win for me.(5)
Psychiatry was very interesting because it was pretty much 1 month of seeing what it's like to be a resident. No joke; from day 1 I was seeing patients on my own, making a diagnosis, and then presenting to my attending. I know that doesn't sound impressive but for a student coming right off of sitting still in a library for 12 hours all day every day for 2 months, its like heaven.(6) It is important to emphasize here that it doesn't normally work like this. I think the enormous amount of responsibility given to me on my first rotation as a third year student was due to a lot of good luck and the little known fact that some departments in University Hospital are severely understaffed.(7) Either way, it was really awesome and I spent my first month actually seeing patients instead of worrying about upsetting my attending.
There will be more to come but I forgot how long it takes to actually type up this stuff seeing as I haven't done it in a while. I promise the next one will have more actual post and less footnotes. Till then, sleep well fellow narcoleptics.
(1) - I lied, it actually began with the orientation session on May 31st but comeon, who really takes that seriously???
(2) - I always feel like they get this part wrong in the media. Being a medical student doesn't automatically mean that you get put in charge of taking care of people's lives, that would be STUPID. The first 2 years are spent inside either a classroom or a library/panera/bedroom doing strictly academic learning. Every now and then they throw you a bone and let you pretend to be a doctor but for the most part the first 2 years are boring. You learn a lot of cool stuff so theoretically you should be an excellent doctor but the world doesn't work like that. Knowing all of the diagnosis' is useless if you don't how to implement them. Also, there is the little known fact that most medical students are awkward around people and thus they also need to be taught HOW to talk to people, this is where the last 2 years of med school come in. Recap: First 2 years: bookwork Second 2 years: learning on the job (with training wheels)
(3) - Remember that this is all during the summer months, you know when the weather is nice and most of your friends want to go out. Unfortunately, they'll be going out without you and ironically they'll probably be going to sleep after a hard night of partying right as you're getting up to go to work.
(4) - Its like jeopardy except you don't win any money and feel like an idiot when you're wrong.
(5) - A short lived one because unfortunately I'll have surgery during the winter months, meaning I actually wont see any sunlight for 2 months. Whee.
(6) - Sounds like extreme studying but that is what studying for the USMLE Step 1 feels like, more to come on that in an upcoming post.
(7) - We've got budget issues at my school, this is why my tuition has gone up by over 25% in the two years since I started here.
Life, Medical School, and whether the two can actually coexist
