Med School VS undergrad

[Guest byjude]

So what IS med school actually like, compared to undergrad?

 

This probably varies a lot based on what you did your undergrad in and where you study (for both degrees), but what are some of the expected or unexpected differences?

 

Do med students study the same way or do they often change their style of studying? I usually like to write out my notes but I don't think this would work with the volume of learning in medicine.

 

Do med students spend more hours in class, or in the library?

 

Is it impossible to be a med student and a commuter?

 

How does your lifestyle change? How does it improve?

[Guest moo]

Do med students study the same way or do they often change their style of studying?

 

Well I was a math and physics major at UBC... so I was in for a rude awakening to say the least when I started (in terms of the stuff they expect you to memorize). Basically, I just go off the notes they give out and powerpoint slides and rarely read the text book, unless the prof was really bad.

 

I usually like to write out my notes but I don't think this would work with the volume of learning in medicine.

 

Some people actually do take their own notes... from books or whatever. To each his/her own.

 

Do med students spend more hours in class, or in the library?

 

First year I averaged 10 hours/week in class, with the rest of the time spent in small groups (PBL) or mindless afternoon curriculum stuff (ethics, physical exam skills... which you can't blow off anymore in second year). Basically I started at 8am, had 2 hours of lecture, and depending on the block, I would either have anatomy lab (during the anatomy intense unit last year--musculoskeletal--we usually had one hour of class and three hours of lab), or PBL or nothing (those days when I was done at 10 are long gone). Two days a week, I would have afternoon curriculum (ethics, Physical exam, etc.) which lasts from 1-3.

 

Second year, we have anywhere from two to four hours of lecture a day, and on the days where we have two hours of lecture we usually have two hours of seminar type small group sessions where there is either a faculty facilitator or a student leading the discussion (usually pathology slides for student led discussions). Sometimes we have PBL, depending on the block but there are no more labs. Thank God.

 

I have a lot of free time in med school which I fill up with volunteering at several free clinics our school participates in, going to the gym, watching TV, wasting time on this board (like now) and studying.

 

Is it impossible to be a med student and a commuter?

 

There's a 45 year old in our class who commutes daily via commuter train for over an hour. She gets up at 4:30 just to make it to class on time. She also has a family, so I would definitely say, YES it's possible.

 

How does your lifestyle change? How does it improve?

First two years, same as undergrad. I have more free time now than I ever did in undergrad, and without the pressure of grades (we are strictly P/F with no rankings) I can do what I want.

[Guest fox]

I did a BSc in Molecular Bio and Genetics and can say that I studied WAY more in undergrad than I do now. I am involved in a bunch of sports, class council, volunteer programs, and I work out every day and I still work part-time. I am doing quite well (so far), but this block we're doing now has required a lot more work than the others have. However, I still have time to fit everything in.

As for hours in class vs library, we spend about 30 hours or more in class per week (including PBL, which is only maybe 4 hours), so by the time I get to the gym and get home, on most days I am not home until 7:30 and really only spend an hour or two (or none) on school work.

As for ways of studying, I have always relied on writing things down over and over so I can learn them. I never used to be able to read things and learn them. Now that's pretty much all I do because of the volume of stuff we need to know and the small amount of time I have to study. It's so much easier on my hand!

My lifestyle changed in many ways. I have a lot less time for friends and family, but have a lot more friends to distribute it amongst, and things going on with med school people. We hang out often and party after every exam, so it is quite fun and nice. I am much busier than I was in grad school, so I am definitely more stressed and more tired. Compared to undergrad, at U of A our schedule, in my opinion, is much more rigid. We have Wed mornings and Friday afternoons off, but the other days are usually 8-5 straight, with an hour for lunch. We have lots of exams, so that part is somewhat stressful, but makes life in the long run easier (as you can't procrastinate as much).

[Guest macMDstudent]

Things change quite a bit in clerkship, which I have just started! We have to be in-hospital by 8 a.m. and don't usually leave until 5 or 6 pm. That is not so bad, but every fourth day you have to stay overnight at the hospital to do "call" which means admit patients to whatever service you are on (I'm doing internal medicine right now). On those overnight shifts you go home the next afternoon, making for a 30+ hour shift. You still have to show up the next day (if it is a weekday) for your regular 8 am-6 pm day. If you end up getting call on a weekend (and everybody does every second weekend) you end up working 12 straight days. I have been in hospital for 100+ hours some weeks. Yikes! Of course, you have to read up on your cases and be ready for the constant question and answer sessions on rounds. There are also one or two teaching sessions to attend each day, which require reading up at night to consolidate.

 

Things are even rougher on surgery rotation, where they like to start each day at 6 a.m. and you still have that 1 in 4 call! I'm not looking forward to that.

 

I'm a commuter (45 minute drive) and it is tiring but possible. Despite all that, it is fascinating and I wouldn't rather be doing anything else!

 

I agree it was nice to have your own schedule in the preclinical years, but once you start clerkship it all changes!

[Guest byjude]

So what level of responsibility do med students have in clerkship?

 

You're on call, and you're there for all of those hours, but are you working independently, or observing, or a combination of the two?

 

I feel like I maybe understand how residency works, but if the first year of residency is such a challenge, then how does clerkship work as a stepping stone to that point? Do you get a lot of guidance and support or is it pretty much about figuring things out for yourself? Does it depend on the med school you go to - the teaching philosophy and the hospitals in which you do your clerkship?

[Guest macMDstudent]

Clerks are responsible for patient care in a supervised way. When you are on call, the senior resident is called by the ER doc when a patient is needing admission to the hospital. The senior resident will then call the clerk to come and do a full history, physical and look at all the lab work and the diagnositc imaging results done so far. Then you have to write up your admitting orders and "present your case" to the resident. The resident will review everything, check the patient themselves then either agree or disagree with you. Then the resident makes any changes to the orders and signs them before they are followed by the nursing staff and other allied health personnel. In the morning, the resident has to present all the cases to the attending physician who then checks over everything the senior resident did!

 

Once your patient is admitted to the hospital, you follow them through the course of their stay. Every day it is the clerks responsibility to do a history, physical and review any new lab results. We are also supposed to figure out what new treatments or tests the patient may need, and then order it. Again, it has to be cosigned. Everything we do is checked over.

 

The attending physician is updated daily on the patients condition, and a few times per week will "round" all the patients being covered by his/her team of residents and clerks. When the team gets to the bed of one of your patients, you are expected to briefly summarze the medical facts of the case and be ready for the "pimping" which is when the attending physician asks you anything and everything that could be related to your patient and the treatment of that condition. That is when we sweat!

 

Each service (ie. internal medicine, obstetrics, pediatrics, psyhiatry, surgery, family medicine etc) differs in the level of responsibility and if the attending physicians are actually available in-hospital round the clock. In surgery, the clerks do a lot of history and physicals but not the actual cutting. They may have to scrub in and hold the retractors or get a chance to close up. In obstetrics, my collegues are delivering babies with the MD watching. In anesthesia rotation, you have to do some intubations (breathing tubes). I'm sure each school does things its own way to a certain degree.

 

Once you are a resident, when you are on call you still do new patients in the ER that need admission to hospital, but you also have the additional responsibility of covering the entire ward over night. If a patient crashes or has an acute problem, the resident is called up to order the treatment/investiagations or run the code if necessary. All residents have to be ACLS (advanced cardiac life support) certified which means being able to give the shocks on the chest with the paddles when people need that. It is very stressful to be called in to deal with an acute problem on a patient you don't know. Residents on-call also have the uneviable task of telling patient's families the bad news when the patient doesn't make it.

[Guest aneliz]

The responsibilities and hours put in by clerks vary with the school... If you are interested in knowing what goes on at UWO and UBC, see the following thread:

 

pub125.ezboard.com/fpreme...=367.topic