do med students get sick a lot?

[doctorme]

Considering that med students spend lots of time shadowing or in the hospital (once they start clerkship) do the students tend to catch bugs often? How do you all deal with being sick during such a crucial time in your education?

[A-Stark]

We wash our hands and practice infection control because many patients are on antibiotics, meaning they are susceptible to opportunistic pathogens, or are immunodeficient and cannot fight infections. The three most common hospital acquired bacteria are MRSA, VRE, and C diff. All three are basically harmless to healthy people.

 

Community-acquired MRSA isn't that uncommon. Staph aureus isn't "harmless" to anyone; the difference is whether they have an infection instead of simply colonized. To be honest, I've seen far, far more patients colonized with MRSA than infected. MRSA (and MSSA) are big components of hospital and ventilator-acquired pneumonia, though, along with Pseudomonas and the "SPICE" organisms.

 

I would say the vast majority of situations in which you, as a hospital worker, would be in contact with something that can actually make you sick will involve the common flu and rarely, tuberculosis. Of course if you are practicing proper precautions, it's unlikely you would get sick. Then there are the bodily fluid hazards such as HIV, Hepatitis, etc.

 

You're more likely to get sick while working in family medicine or outpatient pediatrics. Kids are reservoirs of viruses.

[Birdy]

 

You're more likely to get sick while working in family medicine or outpatient pediatrics. Kids are reservoirs of viruses.

 

That's what I was thinking might be the case. My kids bring home *everything* (being the adorable little disease factories they are.) I have noticed that a year into the whole school/daycare thing, we are getting sick way less often, but at first we had cold after cold for months. Do clerks go through a similar adaptation period?

[Renin]

I got flippin' pneumonia from the kidlets as a medical student.

 

I didn't get really sick until I was a resident though - the long hours really knocks down your immunity. I got shingles. I'm in my 20's. SHINGLES. BAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! But that has more to do with fatigue than "catching" something (as I'm sure you know )

[charty]

I'm just hoping my year of working emerg will have me all resilient for med school coming up. I didn't get sick a lot, but boy, you were exposed to every friggin strain of gastro/flu-causing bugs out there.

[rmorelan]

ha, ha, pediatrics. Sick kids are germ factories. I don't think anyone in my class made it out that rotation without picking up something.

[tooty]

I got pneumonia during emerg once. And a probable virus that took me out for a week. Overall it wasn't that bad.

[A-Stark]

I think I did get H1N1 while in Europe after my first year. I'd been doing anesthesia for a month, but I'm pretty sure we (I wasn't the only one sick) got it from travelling on intercity trains 2-3 times a week.

[10wattbulb]

Methinks that med students tend to be a healthy bunch with better immune systems than average + we get all those vaccines. Sick people in the hospital tend to have weaker immune systems to begin with, so even a relatively innocuous bacteria/virus could affect them. Additionally, our immune system gets better and better over time as we're gradually being exposed to different strains of viruses/bacteria.

[Intrepid86]

Additionally, our immune system gets better and better over time as we're gradually being exposed to different strains of viruses/bacteria.

 

No. It's far more likely that medical students just become more conscious about things like hand-washing, hygiene, personal safety etc, which in turn gradually decreases the number of times you get sick... not our immune systems getting better.

[quackster]

Methinks that med students tend to be a healthy bunch with better immune systems than average + we get all those vaccines. Sick people in the hospital tend to have weaker immune systems to begin with, so even a relatively innocuous bacteria/virus could affect them. Additionally, our immune system gets better and better over time as we're gradually being exposed to different strains of viruses/bacteria.

 

What makes a med student's immune system better than that of someone in the general population?

 

What vaccines do med students get that the general population doesn't?

[10wattbulb]

What makes a med student's immune system better than that of someone in the general population?

 

What vaccines do med students get that the general population doesn't?

 

1. More frequent booster shots, 2. the vast majority of docs get the flu shot every year (not the case for the general pop where ~42% get it), 3. many docs, esp. those in pediatrics and family med, are exposed from time to time to various infectious agents and will develop as a result a natural immunity to those bugs, 4. med students tend to be "young" and healthy (more active than the average Joe), and they learn throughout their years in med school how to live & stay healthy (diet, exercise, prevention, etc).

[runningdoc]

ha, ha, pediatrics. Sick kids are germ factories. I don't think anyone in my class made it out that rotation without picking up something.

 

That is probably my best accomplishment out of clerkship. I didn't get sick on Pediatrics...well as long as you don't count that time I ended up with gastro after seeing "appendicitis" as a gen surg consult in peds ER.

[leviathan]

PEDS....got a nasty bronchitis coughing up a ton of disgusting green phlegm that lasted for 3 weeks. Immediately followed by a 2-day gasto where I was up all night both nights. Fun times!

[rogerroger]

Arg peds is the worst... Count on one sick day a month. If you are not over a toilet you are coughing up a lung.

 

As for MRSA I'm pretty sure I have been colonized long ago... Probably have a few other weird bugs growing on me too.

[Birdy]

Arg peds is the worst... Count on one sick day a month. If you are not over a toilet you are coughing up a lung.

 

As for MRSA I'm pretty sure I have been colonized long ago... Probably have a few other weird bugs growing on me too.

 

Just wait until you have kids who go to daycare....

[ploughboy]

Arg peds is the worst... Count on one sick day a month. If you are not over a toilet you are coughing up a lung.

 

As for MRSA I'm pretty sure I have been colonized long ago... Probably have a few other weird bugs growing on me too.

 

 

I have never been sicker than I was on peds ER in the late fall. I wanted to die, but wasn't able to.

 

Likewise, I'm pretty sure I'm colonized with MDR-everything. I'm always pleasantly surprised when my TB test comes back negative, though.

[10wattbulb]

Arg peds is the worst... Count on one sick day a month. If you are not over a toilet you are coughing up a lung.

 

As for MRSA I'm pretty sure I have been colonized long ago... Probably have a few other weird bugs growing on me too.

 

I have never been sicker than I was on peds ER in the late fall. I wanted to die, but wasn't able to.

 

Likewise, I'm pretty sure I'm colonized with MDR-everything. I'm always pleasantly surprised when my TB test comes back negative, though.

 

Every few months, there was something floating around our floor that inevitably hit a bunch of people in class. Many of my classmates said that they were far more frequently sick during the 2 years we spent in the hospital every day.

 

Oh my... Very intense sickness experiences here. Peds seems to be the worst...

[tigars53]

We also tend to catch the common cold every damn exam week...

[holiday1001]

watch out for post-call days.. i felt a cold coming on today ... a Glucose+caffeine bolus PO quickly fixed that