Today my class had a big ol' mandatory meeting about my third year of medical school. It was both very exciting and very stressful.
Exciting: I am one semester away from beginning the most exciting part of my medical education -- rotations! I will be meeting patients on a daily basis and have a small hand in their care! I can't wait!
Stressful: There are 16 possible tracks and I don't know which one to choose.
Let me give you some background information. At most medical schools, there are 9 main rotations -- the Big 3: pediatrics, general surgery, internal medicine, and the Little 6: psychiatry, neurology, anesthesiology, OB/GYN, family medicine, vacation/elective. M3s will tell you to get the Big 3 out of the way. They are the longest rotations (2 months). Surgery sucks so you'll want to get that out of the way. Et cetera, et cetera. However, the administration today brought up a good point -- "it just doesn't matter." (This is the actual video played for us, ha!) Everyone will complete the 9 total rotations by June of 2013 so it doesn't really matter what order you do it in.
The only advice to heed is this: do NOT do what you think you want first, and do not do it last. Don't do it first because you're too green/ripe/new and won't know what you're doing (aka not very impressive to your clerkship director). Don't do it last because you could actually hate whatever specialty you thought you wanted and be scrambling like crazy in the first two months of your fourth year trying to decide on a residency specialty.
So, back to what I was saying about "stressful." I don't have any interest in pediatrics or general surgery. Thus, I don't really care if I get the Big 3 first. I am currently leaning towards family medicine. OR! Newsflash! I think I like urology! I have this weird thing for genitalia (which sounds really awful when you actually type it out) and it could be cool to help treat men and women (yes! Women need urological help too). Also, urology is surgical! Which is also cool. Procedural, people's junk, what more could a gal ask for? I emailed some people today to get some shadowing experience in to make sure I actually like it. More information about urology in a future post!
Oh, speaking of urology, I am performing the male physical exam next week, which has been very icky for my classmates and I am unnecessarily pumped about it!
Okay, so, stress, again. Sorry I get so distracted. Here is an image of what the schedules look like.
I am leaning towards having the Big 3 second semester so that I can get some clerkships under my wing before I impress people in family med and/or urology (my elective). But, track selection is a lottery system so I may not even get it! And! CRAP. With OB/GYN first, I should be able to get time off for the wedding I'm in (in late July) but babies wait for no one to be born! Although, if I got gynecology (aka no babies) for my last 3 weeks of OB/GYN, then I am sure I could get the weekend off. See what I mean about stressful?
All in all, an interesting day! It's too bad my mom had to rush off the phone or else I would have regaled her with stories of her daughter moving towards being a true blue doctor! :)
Exciting: I am one semester away from beginning the most exciting part of my medical education -- rotations! I will be meeting patients on a daily basis and have a small hand in their care! I can't wait!
Stressful: There are 16 possible tracks and I don't know which one to choose.
Let me give you some background information. At most medical schools, there are 9 main rotations -- the Big 3: pediatrics, general surgery, internal medicine, and the Little 6: psychiatry, neurology, anesthesiology, OB/GYN, family medicine, vacation/elective. M3s will tell you to get the Big 3 out of the way. They are the longest rotations (2 months). Surgery sucks so you'll want to get that out of the way. Et cetera, et cetera. However, the administration today brought up a good point -- "it just doesn't matter." (This is the actual video played for us, ha!) Everyone will complete the 9 total rotations by June of 2013 so it doesn't really matter what order you do it in.
The only advice to heed is this: do NOT do what you think you want first, and do not do it last. Don't do it first because you're too green/ripe/new and won't know what you're doing (aka not very impressive to your clerkship director). Don't do it last because you could actually hate whatever specialty you thought you wanted and be scrambling like crazy in the first two months of your fourth year trying to decide on a residency specialty.
So, back to what I was saying about "stressful." I don't have any interest in pediatrics or general surgery. Thus, I don't really care if I get the Big 3 first. I am currently leaning towards family medicine. OR! Newsflash! I think I like urology! I have this weird thing for genitalia (which sounds really awful when you actually type it out) and it could be cool to help treat men and women (yes! Women need urological help too). Also, urology is surgical! Which is also cool. Procedural, people's junk, what more could a gal ask for? I emailed some people today to get some shadowing experience in to make sure I actually like it. More information about urology in a future post!
Oh, speaking of urology, I am performing the male physical exam next week, which has been very icky for my classmates and I am unnecessarily pumped about it!
Okay, so, stress, again. Sorry I get so distracted. Here is an image of what the schedules look like.
I am leaning towards having the Big 3 second semester so that I can get some clerkships under my wing before I impress people in family med and/or urology (my elective). But, track selection is a lottery system so I may not even get it! And! CRAP. With OB/GYN first, I should be able to get time off for the wedding I'm in (in late July) but babies wait for no one to be born! Although, if I got gynecology (aka no babies) for my last 3 weeks of OB/GYN, then I am sure I could get the weekend off. See what I mean about stressful?
All in all, an interesting day! It's too bad my mom had to rush off the phone or else I would have regaled her with stories of her daughter moving towards being a true blue doctor! :)
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