Relative Workload Of Mf's

[TechToMD 42]

Hi there, incoming 2019 here. How does the difficulty and workload differ between each of the MF's?

The reason I ask is I am heavily involved in a lead role of my own company that I co-founded with some other people. It requires a minimum weekly commitment of 10-15 hours, although I can decide my own hours. I was wondering if it would be worth it to work extra during some MF's when the pace is not as fast and thus subsequently be able to reduce my workload during MF's that are more demanding.

I would need to plan this out within the next 1-2 months, due to logistical concerns.

Any insight would be invaluable.

 

Thank you to anyone who can help!

[Birdy 743]

Honestly, for a 10-15h a week commitment that was that flexible, I would anticipate being able to manage it during all the MFs I've done so far. I have at least that much flexible time I can use for my hobbies and reading and whatnot. I have been warned that MF5 is exceptionally busy because of the shift to clerkship, but since I haven't experienced it yet I can't say (and my MF5 experience will be atypical since I'll be having a baby about 2/3 of the way through...) Perhaps a 2017 can chime in on that one.

[Edict 668]

Hi there, incoming 2019 here. How does the difficulty and workload differ between each of the MF's?

 

The reason I ask is I am heavily involved in a lead role of my own company that I co-founded with some other people. It requires a minimum weekly commitment of 10-15 hours, although I can decide my own hours. I was wondering if it would be worth it to work extra during some MF's when the pace is not as fast and thus subsequently be able to reduce my workload during MF's that are more demanding.

 

I would need to plan this out within the next 1-2 months, due to logistical concerns.

 

Any insight would be invaluable.

 

Thank you to anyone who can help!

 

Probably the only school where this is actually doable for pre-clerkship. You'll be fine for most MFs, but you will be very busy compared to most of your classmates. 

 

This is also definitely not doable during clerkship. 

[Ranana 10]

MF5 is super busy - you do MSK, neuro and psych in 13 weeks. I would advise at least scaling down during that time, much like clerkship. There are a couple of clerkship blocks that may allow for you to be more involved in your work (family, emerg, psych), but that will be variable as well, depending on your location and where these rotations fall in relation to CaRMS applications as well.  

[bearded frog 394]

MF1 - pretty easy compared to later MFs but its a big transition and some will find easier than others

MF2/3 - straight forward, renal can be hard if you have trouble with metabolic stuff

MF4 - this one seemed a little lighter but experiences may vary

MF5 - the hardest one... lots of content and no time

[Organomegaly 320]

MF1 - pretty easy compared to later MFs but its a big transition and some will find easier than others

MF2/3 - straight forward, renal can be hard if you have trouble with metabolic stuff

MF4 - this one seemed a little lighter but experiences may vary

MF5 - the hardest one... lots of content and no time

 

 

yeah actually I personally wouldn't put MF2 and MF3 on the same level

MF3 was ob/gyne and renal for us and I found ob/gyne to be hard to wrap my head around and surprisingly content heavy. ymmv

 

MF1 in hindsight wasn't content heavy but I actually do think cardiology is very hard and I didn't have a great chance to learn it because I was relatively inexperienced at PBL back then. if we had a cardiology block again I think I'd do a much better job at it. otherwise heme and resp (the other parts of MF1) are good ways to ease into med. 

[TechToMD 42]

Thanks everyone for the insight! 

[s2MD 24]

Thanks for providing this breakdown of the MFs.  I've heard there can be a huge variation in the quality of the MF clinical skills preceptors which might account for why some students feel more or less workload within an MF? 

[Birdy 743]

Thanks for providing this breakdown of the MFs.  I've heard there can be a huge variation in the quality of the MF clinical skills preceptors which might account for why some students feel more or less workload within an MF? 

 

Tutors more than preceptors, but the most important will be your particular group and the objectives you set. I'd say it's a variation in approach instead of quality. Most of your learning is centered on tutorial and that's what you're going to need to do the most prep for, and some tutors have a more detail-oriented approach. Some expect you to know every bit of every process, but that's atypical (in my experience and from talking to others) since our learning is mostly focused on understanding general concepts of biological processes and making connections between concepts. Your prior knowledge and the level your particular tutorial group goes into will be the most important determinants of how much time you need to spend preparing.

 

As an example, I knew a fair bit of OB/Gyn going in (I have two kids and am pregnant with my third; I read obsessively during my pregnancies) so for that entire part of MF3 I think I maybe maaaaybe spent a half hour per case just reviewing things I was less familiar with. But renal just killed me and I had to spend hours. Same group, same tutors, same sorts of expectations but prior knowledge made a huge difference.

[jmes.91 24]

Tutors more than preceptors, but the most important will be your particular group and the objectives you set. I'd say it's a variation in approach instead of quality. Most of your learning is centered on tutorial and that's what you're going to need to do the most prep for, and some tutors have a more detail-oriented approach. Some expect you to know every bit of every process, but that's atypical (in my experience and from talking to others) since our learning is mostly focused on understanding general concepts of biological processes and making connections between concepts. Your prior knowledge and the level your particular tutorial group goes into will be the most important determinants of how much time you need to spend preparing.

 

As an example, I knew a fair bit of OB/Gyn going in (I have two kids and am pregnant with my third; I read obsessively during my pregnancies) so for that entire part of MF3 I think I maybe maaaaybe spent a half hour per case just reviewing things I was less familiar with. But renal just killed me and I had to spend hours. Same group, same tutors, same sorts of expectations but prior knowledge made a huge difference.

 

 

What's the difference between a tutor and preceptor? 

[Birdy 743]

What's the difference between a tutor and preceptor?

Tutors are for tutorial, preceptors for clinical skills. Tutors are usually but not always practicing or academic physicians but sometimes are PhD researchers. Preceptors are almost always residents (PGY1 or PGY2, I've not seen higher.)