A day in the life of....

[ladykilla421]

I was discussing my plans to attend med school with my husband this evening (Im a premed) and after he asked me how demanding I thought med school would actually be and how much spare time I would find myself with, I was at a loss for words. I have no fricken idea. So my question is; how is one day in the life of a med student? Do you have any spare time? Im assuming that med school would obviously be quite demanding and would likely leave me with little or no time to myself but then again I dont know.

[switcheroo]

My answer to that would vary considerably depending on whether I'm at the beginning or end of a block lol. I'm in second year, and realistically, I'm in class ~6-8 hours a day, and then there's lots of studying to do on top of that. I like to do my work during the week and save as much free time for the weekends as possible; others in my class like to do nothing in the evenings during the week and then work really hard for one or both days of the weekend. Either way, your free time will be significantly reduced from what you're used to in undergrad.

 

All that said, I've managed to maintain a happy marriage, I still socialize, and for about 2/3 of each block I'm a relatively well-balanced person. Getting towards exams shakes up the balance in favor of workaholism, but that's only for like 4-6 weeks, three times a year.

 

Now, clerkship...well, that's a different story.

[nosuperman]

Anecdotally, most of my friends in med school say its less intense than undergrad. Granted they all had monster GPA's and spent hours upon hours studying... but they do go out more now than they ever did. (UWO, Queens and one Mac)

[rogerroger]

Pre-clerkship is pretty chill on average compared to undergrad from my experience. But this statement is relative and probably school dependent. However, there are bursts of time, weeks here and there that tend to dwarf undergrad in terms of busyness. Usually these are weeks leading up to examinations. The theory part of medicine covered in pre-clerkship is not that hard intellectually. I think most med students would agree that the challenging part of pre-clerkship is the volume and speed at which you are expected to digest material.

 

As for clerkship. I am no expert in what this is about, as I am just starting it. But it appears you get way more of a real time crunch. Long hours of clinical exposure followed by more traditional studying etc. To be honest, things probably only get more crunched time-wise in residency.

 

With this said there are several of my peers who are married or getting married. So it is by no means impossible to find that balance and the ease of doing so is probably very couple dependent.

[Julie]

Yes, clerkship definitely restricts free time more than pre-clerkship. It's highly rotation dependant, but you can no longer count on having all your weekends & evenings to study, and so you have to find time whenever you're off. The biggest adjustment for me was not having so much control over my schedule. In the first 2 yrs, you have lots of free time, you just need to fill lots of it with studying. You can tons or moderate amounts, depending on what you want. And mostly you can choose where & when you do that, and sleep in often or study at home in your pj's... You can take study breaks to do things you like. In clerkship, you have a schedule to which you need to stick, and you're on call weekdays & on weekends and you may or may not get a real lunch break (ie more than a sandwich on the run). You work 24 hr shifts so sometimes it's like the hospital is your second home. You still have free time, but it's more limited.

 

In my 3rd yr rotations I've worked between 35 and 75 hrs/week, I'd guess. The average was probably 50-60hrs / week. It really varies a lot on the rotation. I had to study on top of these hours, both to do well in the rotation itself & because I had a written exam every 12 weeks. So sometimes I had very little free time, but other times I had lots. You do need to make sacrifice, but it's totally possible to make relationships, bot romantic and friendships, last through it. It's important to have a supporting partner if you're in a relationship, and it's good for them to know a bit what to expect in advance. I think it's also important to communicate well what you're going through, otherwise it can be quite isolating. None the less, we all make it work.

[apache]

I'll say that pre-clerkship leaves you with a lot more time than undergrad; that being said, I'm not gunning for an ambitious specialty and I know there's a huge variety of time dedication in our class: some people have tons of time and focus on academics, personal interests, and friends and family, whereas, some seem to always be busy. I can't comment on clerkship since I'm not there yet, but I hear some rotations (surg, obs/gyn internal) are busy, whereas there are others (psych, fm, peds) that are more laid back... when it comes down to your electives, they can busy as you want (you can do endocrinology or cardiac surgery, total opposites in time consumingness), depending on your priorities and interests.

 

I was discussing my plans to attend med school with my husband this evening (Im a premed) and after he asked me how demanding I thought med school would actually be and how much spare time I would find myself with, I was at a loss for words. I have no fricken idea. So my question is; how is one day in the life of a med student? Do you have any spare time? Im assuming that med school would obviously be quite demanding and would likely leave me with little or no time to myself but then again I dont know.

[koft]

I think ultimately, you have to think of the duration of your study. Granted being a med student, you have pre-clerkship and clerkship years, however, you can't practice until you finish your residency and passed your fellowship exams. Thus, it depends on what area you want to go into, after getting into meds school. If you want Ortho/GS. You might have to spend lots of hours on call and in the hospital.. It can be a long haul....

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Ford Hospital Picture

[apache]

Extremely true, residency is a five year haul, the program I want to get into is 44 hours a week with 1 in 8 call in second and third year, and 1 in 15 call fourth and fifth year. Other programs and specialties are 80-100 hours a week with 1 in 4 call. To umbrella medicine into a homogenous entity would be a mistake, it really depends on your individual path.

 

I think ultimately, you have to think of the duration of your study. Granted being a med student, you have pre-clerkship and clerkship years, however, you can't practice until you finish your residency and passed your fellowship exams. Thus, it depends on what area you want to go into, after getting into meds school. If you want Ortho/GS. You might have to spend lots of hours on call and in the hospital.. It can be a long haul....

[nosuperman]

Extremely true, residency is a five year haul, the program I want to get into is 44 hours a week with 1 in 8 call in second and third year, and 1 in 15 call fourth and fifth year. Other programs and specialties are 80-100 hours a week with 1 in 4 call. To umbrella medicine into a homogenous entity would be a mistake, it really depends on your individual path.

 

Off-topic curiosity - what program has such a glorious schedule?

[koft]

Off-topic curiosity - what program has such a glorious schedule?

 

Vascular.. usually is 1 in 2 or 1 in 3.. (i know it is breaking PAIRO rules)...

 

I think Pathology is pretty cozy... on the other hand. for a 5 yr program.

 

Oops, read the wrong thing!! hahaha!!! I want to know what program gives you such relaxing schedule...

Wait PSYCH!????

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FORD LASER SPECIFICATIONS

[Satsuma]

Vascular.. usually is 1 in 2 or 1 in 3.. (i know it is breaking PAIRO rules)...

 

I think Pathology is pretty cozy... on the other hand. for a 5 yr program.

 

Oops, read the wrong thing!! hahaha!!! I want to know what program gives you such relaxing schedule...

Wait PSYCH!????

 

Vascular, I believe is typically home call...in which case 1 in 3 is not breaking PAIRO rules. And it just has to average out to 1 in 2 over your rotation - so at times 1 in 2 (as in all other rotations) will happen as long as it averages out.

[moo]

CM is the coziest specialty. Often times we can work from home. Call is almost non-existent outside of clinical year(s), unless you are also working as a medical health officer (and having that rotation double as a residency rotation), in which case you are paid as an MHO with a masters degree (160K with benefits). 9-5 in every non-clinical rotation, often times less. I have time to moonlight as a family doc, pulled in 250K plus my residency salary last year. Loving it!

[leviathan]

CM is the coziest specialty. Often times we can work from home. Call is almost non-existent outside of clinical year(s), unless you are also working as a medical health officer (and having that rotation double as a residency rotation), in which case you are paid as an MHO with a masters degree (160K with benefits). 9-5 in every non-clinical rotation, often times less. I have time to moonlight as a family doc, pulled in 250K plus my residency salary last year. Loving it!

Where are you doing locums to get that kind of coin? Vancouver area? Anyway good for you, that's awesome that you are able to keep doing school while working.

[moo]

In Vancouver. You work hard, know the billing system inside out, and you can make a ton of money. I probably work about 75 hours a week now. Last year when I was doing my Masters I was working less. Had 12 hours of class and worked another 35 hours a week. Hard, but doable.

[itimebomb2]

I was discussing my plans to attend med school with my husband this evening (Im a premed) and after he asked me how demanding I thought med school would actually be and how much spare time I would find myself with, I was at a loss for words. I have no fricken idea. So my question is; how is one day in the life of a med student? Do you have any spare time? Im assuming that med school would obviously be quite demanding and would likely leave me with little or no time to myself but then again I dont know.

 

Since the OP asked about med school and not residency, I'll answer her question.

 

Med school is a LOT of work - I go to Mac where it's very self directed (~10 hours per week of scheduled classes) and I still find it hard to balance studying and hanging out with my gf. It has definitely been a strain. Of the people I know who are married, I find that they are able to spend a bit of time with their families, but their studies are severely compromised. If you're a non-science background student, you'd find it even harder.

 

That said, you don't get something for nothing in life. Marriage is a huge gift, and so is medicine - can they been done simultaneously? Yes. It requires a LOT of effort, and probably a great deal of sacrifice from all the other aspects of your life. Your husband needs to get on board if you don't want your life to fall apart around you when you get in. He'll have to get used to not having you around all the time. It's easier if he is a go-getter himself.

 

There are people who even have children in med school... they'll probably die a few years younger than they should, due to a total lack of sleep. (Kidding! Sort of...)

[AnxiousBoy]

Med school is demanding. There's no doubt about it. I have seen couples come out of it stronger than ever and I've seen married people unfortunately end in divorce. The general pattern I saw was that the non-med student partner is very understanding of the amount of time and effort needed to successfully complete med school. They take on larger role in the marriage, generally supporting their spouse financially, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They are the solid "rock" who truly exemplifies the definition of "best friend". The other side of it are the couples who kinda rushed into marriage without realizing the amount of commitment involved in upholding a marriage, let alone a marriage with one partner committed to med school. The marriage was driven by mainly passion, and the non-medical partner realizes that they liked the relationship because of the wonderful times they were able to spend together. Often times, the marriage breaks down citing the fact that one partner became frustrated with the other one was not emotionally available towards the other. This is precipitated by the fact that their "together time" would be diminished considerably. Where you fit in this scale can only be judged by you and you only. I hope this puts things in perspective.

[apache]

U of T psych

 

Off-topic curiosity - what program has such a glorious schedule?

[apache]

bang on! path and derm are also prob pretty chill too!

 

Vascular.. usually is 1 in 2 or 1 in 3.. (i know it is breaking PAIRO rules)...

 

I think Pathology is pretty cozy... on the other hand. for a 5 yr program.

 

Oops, read the wrong thing!! hahaha!!! I want to know what program gives you such relaxing schedule...

Wait PSYCH!????

[koft]

bang on! path and derm are also prob pretty chill too!

 

I wanted to say path and derm, but couple of my friends are in those, so i don't want them to hunt me down lol! Actually Radiology shouldn't be too bad either. if you avoid most surgical specialties you should be fine

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500K

[shannn]

I wanted to say path and derm, but couple of my friends are in those, so i don't want them to hunt me down lol! Actually Radiology shouldn't be too bad either. if you avoid most surgical specialties you should be fine

 

What about PM&R?

[apache]

true dat, psych, derm, path, family, rad onc, rads, pmnr, er and IM subspecialties not called gastro or cardio are all super chill, there's lot's of stuff in med where u don't have to give up your life to do it...

 

****, to be honest, there's not very many medical specialties that seem appealing to me, i like to help people, and have done a lot of helping over the last five years, but i'm not working 100 hours a week to do it, there's a point where you burn out, plus there's a lot of other ways to make a difference than being a cog our health care system

 

I wanted to say path and derm, but couple of my friends are in those, so i don't want them to hunt me down lol! Actually Radiology shouldn't be too bad either. if you avoid most surgical specialties you should be fine

[cheech10]

I wanted to say path and derm, but couple of my friends are in those, so i don't want them to hunt me down lol! Actually Radiology shouldn't be too bad either. if you avoid most surgical specialties you should be fine

 

Radiology can be really busy. Especially if at high volume trauma centres, the residents tend not to get any sleep at all.

[koft]

Radiology can be really busy. Especially if at high volume trauma centres, the residents tend not to get any sleep at all.

 

Fair enough... but now with remote access, at least you can read the CT/MRI at home. I guess it depends on the centre.

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MARIJUANA REHAB FORUM

[leviathan]

In Vancouver. You work hard, know the billing system inside out, and you can make a ton of money. I probably work about 75 hours a week now. Last year when I was doing my Masters I was working less. Had 12 hours of class and worked another 35 hours a week. Hard, but doable.

Respect! I wonder how much you'd make with the rural retention bonus in BC. Do you know if you can work while doing your CCFP-EM training?

[Lactic Folly]

Fair enough... but now with remote access, at least you can read the CT/MRI at home. I guess it depends on the centre.

 

If you take call from home, you can't consult with surgeons who come down to the reading room, go over to the ER to show interesting findings, do 3D reconstructions to problem solve, check scans on the table, talk to patients about radiation risk, or cover contrast injections in case of adverse reaction. Plus, remote access is slower, as is dialing into the hospital from outside, so I think it is better used when backing up someone else on call.

 

That being said, I do agree it is likely centre dependent, and would be more lifestyle controllable than most surgical specialties..