1fuzzy2dino3 Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 hi guys, so i'm huge on napping! in fact, i need a lot of sleep to function. and i'm soon entering clerkship. i was wondering whether any of the seniors could tell me just how clerkship lifestyle works? would i have time to nap , or do i just have to suck it up and drink a lot of coffee? in particular, i'm worried about how studying in clerkship works.. because if i'm on the wards (and i hear it's very draining) then by the time i get home, i know that all i'll want to do is cook, eat and sleep.. and maybe work out....so when would one study? if you could illuminate me i'd be utterly grateful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebouque Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 Is there an exam at the end of every single core rotation at your school? Or just a few exams here and there? Because the time that you'll spend studying will vary tremendously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-Stark Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 You mean nap time during the day? Like any job that involves working 5 days a week, you don't get nap time. Some days and some rotations can be more tiring than others, but that's not different (and generally better) than residency. The important thing is to go to bed at a reasonable time every night, which for some rotations (i.e. surgery) means not much later than 10pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1fuzzy2dino3 Posted July 21, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 thanks guys. so no napping then btw, theboque, we have exams at the end of each block of rotations. and apparently, we get objectives that we're supposed to read around during the rotation, and i think the exam tests us on knowledge from there. quite different from preclerkship where we had notes and past exams. is this how you guys do it then? you would just need to know those objectives in and out, alongside caring for patients? (and ofcourse finding a balance)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuma Posted July 21, 2012 Report Share Posted July 21, 2012 During the daytime? That depends on how good you are at napping with your eyes open. Days where you are on call - nap at any time you have a free moment, cause you never know when you'll get called. The saying is: don't stand if you can sit, don't sit if you can lay down, don't lay down if you can sleep and eat when you can. (from someone who has gained alot of weight over the last 5 years of clerkship/residency - take that last one with a grain of salt! lol ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renin Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 I napped the minute I got home (almost). Naps keep you sane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 22, 2012 Report Share Posted July 22, 2012 thanks guys. so no napping then btw, theboque, we have exams at the end of each block of rotations. and apparently, we get objectives that we're supposed to read around during the rotation, and i think the exam tests us on knowledge from there. quite different from preclerkship where we had notes and past exams. is this how you guys do it then? you would just need to know those objectives in and out, alongside caring for patients? (and ofcourse finding a balance)? no special plan here - you just work hard and of course some blocks are easier than others. I am in internal medicine (CTU) right now, which along with surgery are probably the busiest. I start at 7:30am and go until 5:30-6 on a regular day but can stay later if something is going on. There is time to study for a few hours each night when you get home. There is also the weekends and there is a lot of teaching during the day as well - every morning, lunch and an afternoon there are required teaching rounds. Call is different - often you get very little sleep helping with ward management. You start at 7:30 and go possibly non stop until the following morning at 10am or so. Actually can use the fact that you are off during the day to get somethings done but you have to catch up on sleep as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 Yeah call is very hit or miss. On CTU, there have been times when I was in the ER for 16 hours straight (2:30 PM till 6:30 AM), and then there were times when I got 5.5 hours of sleep. On those nights you find yourself scrambling for your pager because you think you're bound to have missed pages at the end of the night with that kind of sleep. ha yeah, that is true - for me I find the pagers really quite so I am so paranoid about them. At my hospital it doesn't help that the call rooms are quite far away from the action - you often get there only to turn around and some back. That is annoying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-Stark Posted July 23, 2012 Report Share Posted July 23, 2012 I discovered only near the end of third year that the back way out from the call rooms led to a stairwell that took you directly to emerg. Would that I'd found it months earlier... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medaholic Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 Best moments to nap... morning rounds, lunch rounds, xray rounds (lights are out!) Other than that, there aren't any good times during the day. As for keeping up with your readings - always carry some notes to study with you. So when you're waiting to review a case, or you're in between patients in clinic, you can use what little downtime you have to study. I wished I had started doing this sooner. I was able to get through all of TO notes in just a few months by reading whenever I could (rip out all the sections and put them in binders). Journal articles and little handbooks are also great. UpToDate is also great if your school has a subscription. That way you can free up some time to do other things when you get home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantaloons Posted July 25, 2012 Report Share Posted July 25, 2012 Hahaha, you're asking if its possible for you to sleep on the job! You're an active member of the team in hospital. It's just like any other job where you have to pull your own weight for the team. Sure, it's possible to sneak a few winks in during teaching rounds, but it looks bad (sleeping on the job). It can be sucky. I need ++sleep too, but you'd be surprised how well you can adapt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldnk Posted July 27, 2012 Report Share Posted July 27, 2012 On a related note. Call is optional, right? I would also prefer to not see any patients with fluid excretion. Is that do-able? Maybe start rounds around 10AM instead of 7AM? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted July 27, 2012 Report Share Posted July 27, 2012 On a related note. Call is optional, right? I would also prefer to not see any patients with fluid excretion. Is that do-able? Maybe start rounds around 10AM instead of 7AM?Sad thing is at first I couldn't tell if you were serious or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted July 27, 2012 Report Share Posted July 27, 2012 Sad thing is at first I couldn't tell if you were serious or not. Well, it is true that call is optional, in the same way that med school is optional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1fuzzy2dino3 Posted July 27, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2012 Best moments to nap... morning rounds, lunch rounds, xray rounds (lights are out!) Other than that, there aren't any good times during the day. As for keeping up with your readings - always carry some notes to study with you. So when you're waiting to review a case, or you're in between patients in clinic, you can use what little downtime you have to study. I wished I had started doing this sooner. I was able to get through all of TO notes in just a few months by reading whenever I could (rip out all the sections and put them in binders). Journal articles and little handbooks are also great. UpToDate is also great if your school has a subscription. That way you can free up some time to do other things when you get home. oooh, i like this idea. thank you for the tip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogerroger Posted July 29, 2012 Report Share Posted July 29, 2012 Adjusting to clerkship lifestyle wise is grueling. But you will also develop a new appreciation for what lifestyle means. Now the intensity of your life directly depends in the rotation. Will you be sleeping much on medicine, surgery, or obgyn? Nope, not likely. I will be honest with you, on surgery it was normal not to sleep for 26-30 hrs. Some other rotations were not much better. Post-call days are write offs. Maybe you will get laundry done or somthing. Don't plan on these days being super productive. Your body is mega jet lagged. How do you study? Well you learn a lot by doing. You read when you have time in small bits. But gone are the days of studying hours on end. What worked in years past probably wont work any more in regards to studying. I found this way harder. But at the same time I learned 5x faster during clerkship and actually remembered a lot of it post exam. Your efficiency goes way up. The life style considerations are a big deal. You will find your peers begin to separate themselves out to varying degrees based on how they interpret lifestyle in medicine. It is one of the major reasons family medicine grows in popularity towards CaRMS. This played a major factor in me deciding on my eventual speciality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1fuzzy2dino3 Posted August 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 1, 2012 Adjusting to clerkship lifestyle wise is grueling. But you will also develop a new appreciation for what lifestyle means. Now the intensity of your life directly depends in the rotation. Will you be sleeping much on medicine, surgery, or obgyn? Nope, not likely. I will be honest with you, on surgery it was normal not to sleep for 26-30 hrs. Some other rotations were not much better. Post-call days are write offs. Maybe you will get laundry done or somthing. Don't plan on these days being super productive. Your body is mega jet lagged. How do you study? Well you learn a lot by doing. You read when you have time in small bits. But gone are the days of studying hours on end. What worked in years past probably wont work any more in regards to studying. I found this way harder. But at the same time I learned 5x faster during clerkship and actually remembered a lot of it post exam. Your efficiency goes way up. The life style considerations are a big deal. You will find your peers begin to separate themselves out to varying degrees based on how they interpret lifestyle in medicine. It is one of the major reasons family medicine grows in popularity towards CaRMS. This played a major factor in me deciding on my eventual speciality. many thanks rogerroger. That painted a good picture of the clerkship lifestyle. so bottom line as you and medaholic have suggested - read up whenever there's time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted August 1, 2012 Report Share Posted August 1, 2012 Clerkship is also when you find out who in your class is a hard worker you can count on and who is a selfish lazy a-hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proton Posted August 2, 2012 Report Share Posted August 2, 2012 Thanks for asking, op, I was worrying about the same thing myself. I don't think it's an unreasonable question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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