Do Med Students Tend to Move Closer to The Hospital During Clerkship?

[JB.]

I'm just curious if people change their living arrangements during clerkship. Seems like it pay be a pain in the butt (and slightly dangerous) to do too much commuting when you're a very sleep deprived clerk. How does this normally work?

[igeorgex]

at mac, a bunch of people either live downtown to begin with or move there before clerkship starts. the closer you get to the hospitals, the more expensive it gets to find a decent place with parking though

[A-Stark]

Even in downtown Hamilton??

[cardiomegaly]

In most programs, you can be placed at any hospital in the city, not just the major teaching centre attached to the University. More often than not you don't get to pick where you end up for each rotation, so it's really not an advantage to move in case you end up on the other side of the city for 6 months. I live 5 minutes away from the UAH but have only been lucky enough to have a couple rotations there.

 

Bottom line, get a car in clerkship. I doubt the buses run early enough for you to show up at 530 for surgery rounds.

[JB.]

I didn't know that, cardio. Thanks for clearing that up. In theory you could be doing rotations at every hospital in Edmonton, correct? Is there an area of Edmonton that is central to most of the hospitals?

[tooty]

I didn't know that, cardio. Thanks for clearing that up. In theory you could be doing rotations at every hospital in Edmonton, correct? Is there an area of Edmonton that is central to most of the hospitals?

 

Yes. Locate on a map all the hospitals you could rotate in. Find the center.

[JB.]

Derr. Swear to god, I don't use my brain some days. Thanks, tooty

[Mithril]

Some people also buy a car.

[deeman101]

Of course. The hours can be super effing ridiculously long in clerkship. I've been averaging 10hr days and sometimes 14hr days. My schedule tomorrow is 8am to 11pm (I was excused from 6:45am morning rounds...yay). It would be so much harder if I lived any further away than 15mins.

 

EDIT: I'm transitioning into clerkship, but still not in the worst of it yet...

[bored]

Of course. The hours can be super effing ridiculously long in clerkship. I've been averaging 10hr days and sometimes 14hr days. My schedule tomorrow is 8am to 11pm (I was excused from 6:45am morning rounds...yay). It would be so much harder if I lived any further away than 15mins.

EDIT: I'm transitioning into clerkship, but still not in the worst of it yet...

 

hey out of curiosity.. if you have one day of 8 am to 11 pm, what would the next afew days be like after that?

[JB.]

Deeman, are considering short term rents in different areas of the city if you're doing rotations at hospitals that are farther than 15 minutes from where you're currently living?

[rmorelan]

Of course. The hours can be super effing ridiculously long in clerkship. I've been averaging 10hr days and sometimes 14hr days. My schedule tomorrow is 8am to 11pm (I was excused from 6:45am morning rounds...yay). It would be so much harder if I lived any further away than 15mins.

 

EDIT: I'm transitioning into clerkship, but still not in the worst of it yet...

 

A lot of residency is of course worse - something to look forward too

 

Surgery for me in clerkship was pretty much always 6-6 with call one in 5 (so those were 6 to 10 the following day. Haven`t done internal yet but Peds CTU was 7:30 to 5:30 each day as well. Family, and psych were more 8-5ish.

 

It isn`t the hours though that really get to students - it is the lost of flexibility for often the first time in at least a very long time. You have to be there, you have to stay the entire shift and be on time and no matter what else is going on in your live you have to plow through. I have been waiting for 4 weeks now to find a time I can actually renew my drivers license because I work through the entire day - last year I would just go

 

Some days are also unpredictable - actually since you only get the schedule a few weeks in advance you cannot plan that far ahead away either. That is just the life of a clerk

[geetar2112]

Rmorelan, out of curiosity how much time on avg do you study per day on top of your shifts?

 

e.g.) for peds CTU you said you're at work for about 10hrs/day, would 2 hrs a night of reading be sufficient? do you get any down-time during shifts to study? what's peds CTU call like?

 

do they give you true lunch breaks or do you just have time to eat a granola bar or something in between patients?

 

sorry for the barrage of questions, i'm starting clerkship next year and very curious!

 

 

A lot of residency is of course worse - something to look forward too

 

Surgery for me in clerkship was pretty much always 6-6 with call one in 5 (so those were 6 to 10 the following day. Haven`t done internal yet but Peds CTU was 7:30 to 5:30 each day as well. Family, and psych were more 8-5ish.

 

It isn`t the hours though that really get to students - it is the lost of flexibility for often the first time in at least a very long time. You have to be there, you have to stay the entire shift and be on time and no matter what else is going on in your live you have to plow through. I have been waiting for 4 weeks now to find a time I can actually renew my drivers license because I work through the entire day - last year I would just go

 

Some days are also unpredictable - actually since you only get the schedule a few weeks in advance you cannot plan that far ahead away either. That is just the life of a clerk

[japlanet]

Rmorelan, out of curiosity how much time on avg do you study per day on top of your shifts?

 

e.g.) for peds CTU you said you're at work for about 10hrs/day, would 2 hrs a night of reading be sufficient? do you get any down-time during shifts to study? what's peds CTU call like?

 

do they give you true lunch breaks or do you just have time to eat a granola bar or something in between patients?

 

sorry for the barrage of questions, i'm starting clerkship next year and very curious!

 

It is going to be highly variable. Some days will be go-go-go and you're exhausted when you get home and you don't do any sort of reading at all. Others you have several hours of downtime in the afternoon and you can eat, study etc before handover. If will really depend on the rotation, your time management skills and preferences, and the patient load on any given service.

 

Of course this is for inpatient (CTU/peds/obs) rotations. Outpatient rotations tend to be busy clinics 8-12 and 1-5 or so and then you would probably get a short lunch but no downtime during the day. ER shifts, you of course are working all shift with minimal breaks/eating time but the tradeoff is shorter days and 40 hr/week instead of 60-80 hr/week

[deeman101]

hey out of curiosity.. if you have one day of 8 am to 11 pm, what would the next afew days be like after that?

 

No different. I got home an hour or so ago and I have to be at a different hospital in 8 hrs (which means can't round at 6:45am again with the residents! yay!). I caught a total of 3 hrs of naps during today though so its not exactly as bad as it seems.

 

Deeman, are considering short term rents in different areas of the city if you're doing rotations at hospitals that are farther than 15 minutes from where you're currently living?

 

No. I live 15mins away by walk by the 2 hospitals I spend the most amount of time in. And 20mins by bus to the next 2 hospitals and 20mins by walk to the children's hospital. Its costing me a bit more than I'd like to pay in rent but hell I'd pay more for the extra sleep.

 

It isn`t the hours though that really get to students - it is the lost of flexibility for often the first time in at least a very long time. You have to be there, you have to stay the entire shift and be on time and no matter what else is going on in your live you have to plow through. I have been waiting for 4 weeks now to find a time I can actually renew my drivers license because I work through the entire day - last year I would just go

 

Some days are also unpredictable - actually since you only get the schedule a few weeks in advance you cannot plan that far ahead away either. That is just the life of a clerk

 

Yea seriously. The most I know my schedule in advance of is like 2 weeks. Most of the time its 1 week. Actually on Monday I was told to show up at 8am...thats as far in advance I knew my schedule last weekend. I ended up in a very busy preop and left late.

 

One of the senior residents I was on call with today was *****ing about his new iphone 4s. I told him to go to get warranty work done on it. Then he reminded me that he's a resident...he barely had time on the weekend to order the phone online in the first place.

[Jochi1543]

hey out of curiosity.. if you have one day of 8 am to 11 pm, what would the next afew days be like after that?

 

It depends. I imagine the 11 pm days is when deeman has call. I rarely had to stay past 6 pm on days I was not on call. Some rotations/sites have evening call where you have to be at the hospital til 10 or 11 pm, but then you don't get a post-call day the next day, which sucks. Theoretically, if you get called in at like 10:50 pm and end up staying at the hospital past midnight, you are entitled to a post-call day. Generally, whenever I've been on call for evenings, my preceptors have let me go a bit early - e.g. 10:30 when I'm on call til 11 so that I don't get stuck at the hospital too late.

 

It sounds better than overnight call, but the overall hours over 2 days in a row may end up greater than with overnight call + post-call day. On the other hand, at least your circadian rhythm is not thrown off completely.

[Typical Premed]

The hours in clerkship depend on the rotation, the site, and the attending/residents. A typical day on internal ctu is 8-5, with overnight call 1/4 and you don't get out post-call until 1230-1pm the next day. Surgery is 645am-530/600pm usually with 1/4 call until midnight and then you have to be back the next day at 645 and work a full day. Peds was 8am-530/600pm usually with 1/4 call until midnight and no post-call. Family med is variable depending on the site. Obs/gyn is similar hours as surgery and psych is like 9-4 with home call.

[geetar2112]

Thanks for the info guys!

 

The hours in clerkship depend on the rotation, the site, and the attending/residents. A typical day on internal ctu is 8-5, with overnight call 1/4 and you don't get out post-call until 1230-1pm the next day. Surgery is 645am-530/600pm usually with 1/4 call until midnight and then you have to be back the next day at 645 and work a full day. Peds was 8am-530/600pm usually with 1/4 call until midnight and no post-call. Family med is variable depending on the site. Obs/gyn is similar hours as surgery and psych is like 9-4 with home call.

[goleafsgochris]

Im honestly baffled when ppl tell me they dont get a car for clerkship. Just get one lol. Bumming rides off ppl will seem fun in the short term, and will really piss them off in the long term (and yes--bumming rides off your classmates is what will inevitably happen, as the majority are perceptive enough to realize a car is a massive asset).