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What is your lifestyle like in med school?


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10 hours ago, NLengr said:

Residency fucking sucked ass. If I was given the choice between repeating residency or getting both of my nuts crushed in a vice, I'd take the vice every time. At least the pain would be over relatively quickly.

That sounds like the type of injury you'd be getting shittons of chronic pain from though...and it'd be even worse if you had phantom pain and you had to put a photo of sweaty balls in front of a mirror and scratch that

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21 hours ago, NLengr said:

Residency fucking sucked ass. If I was given the choice between repeating residency or getting both of my nuts crushed in a vice, I'd take the vice every time. At least the pain would be over relatively quickly.

If you didn't know anything about NLengr from prior posts, this response automatically tells you that he did a surgical residency.

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On 14/12/2017 at 8:39 PM, NLengr said:

Residency fucking sucked ass. If I was given the choice between repeating residency or getting both of my nuts crushed in a vice, I'd take the vice every time. At least the pain would be over relatively quickly.

Does it really get better as an attending? 

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On December 16, 2017 at 4:39 PM, codebar said:

Does it really get better as an attending? 

Yup. My life now is 100% better. 

Still busy, but at least I control my own life, don't have to do other people's scut, my nurses go out of thier way to help me and I get respected by other physicians. 

I'm at a smaller rural community hospital. Mileage may vary based on practice location. 

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On 12/16/2017 at 3:09 PM, codebar said:

Does it really get better as an attending? 

It gets much better when you are done residency (and fellowship - though fellowship is much better than residency). 

But, as NLengr said, you are still very busy. Just busy in a different way - plus the ability to control you own life, cut the scut, have fellow physicians treat you like a colleague and not just some 'resident' is a revelation after years of hell. The responsibility goes way up, the stress is still there (but different), new problems arise (OR resources, office management issues, etc) but generally life is much better on the other side.

Is it worth it - yes it is, but only the strong need apply, because you will have your ass handed to you on a daily basis for the next 5-7 years. I personally would also go with the vice versus repeating residency, though I'm married so you will have to look in my wife's purse to find the intended targets.

PMD

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in preclerkship at U of T. I came into med with the same expectation as OP, but have found preclerkship to be more stressful than undergrad (came from a very tough undergrad, so was pretty burned out coming in)...pretty disappointing to say the least. and this is just trying to keep my head above water. would recommend any other med school over U of T if you're looking for quality of life during preclerkship.

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M1 was great, M2 was even better.  M3 really really sucked.  M4 wasn't so bad.

R1 sucked almost as much as M3.  R2 kinda sucked, but everything started to click so that made it kind of fun.  R3 was kinda hit-and-miss, I actually don't remember much about it.  R4 was fun.  R5 would have been a lot of fun except for that stupid exam.  R6 was fun, but terrifying.  R7 was a ton of work, but a whole lot of fun.

I have fond memories of my training, but wouldn't really want to do it again.  The melancholy stops pretty soon after the first cheque hits the bank account.

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So I’m hearing surgery residency was worth it in the end, on the basis that the specific job you landed seems quite good, but that you would also never dream of going through it again - do I take that to mean that if you were back as an M4 right now, considering a career in surgery, you would maybe have chosen something else? I guess I wonder how much the answer to the “is it worth it” question is based on the specific job (and job availability) you landed in, vs the job and availability more broadly such as in an academic centre or larger community or sub-specialty specific?

Surgery is a lot of fun, probably some of the most fun in medicine, but I have a hard time rectifying the fact that there’s invariably something else non-medicine related that I’d rather be doing at 6am, 5pm or 11pm. 

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I find the stress of residency apps and deciding your specialty can really weigh on you during clerkship. Overall, if you ask me, pre-clerkship was not too bad, clerkship is initially fun and then quickly becomes horrible (depending on what specialty you are trying to pursue). I do think residents work way harder than clerks do, but at least residents usually have a sense of where they will be in the next 4-5 years, clerks have absolutely no clue where they will be in a year's time and have very little control over that fact. 

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On 12/19/2017 at 0:25 AM, medstudent2021 said:

in preclerkship at U of T. I came into med with the same expectation as OP, but have found preclerkship to be more stressful than undergrad (came from a very tough undergrad, so was pretty burned out coming in)...pretty disappointing to say the least. and this is just trying to keep my head above water. would recommend any other med school over U of T if you're looking for quality of life during preclerkship.

How are you finding UofT? I agree, it was a lot more work than I anticipated, but it seems doable so far. I'm so thankful for the break we're having.

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On 19/12/2017 at 5:56 PM, Edict said:

I find the stress of residency apps and deciding your specialty can really weigh on you during clerkship. Overall, if you ask me, pre-clerkship was not too bad, clerkship is initially fun and then quickly becomes horrible (depending on what specialty you are trying to pursue). I do think residents work way harder than clerks do, but at least residents usually have a sense of where they will be in the next 4-5 years, clerks have absolutely no clue where they will be in a year's time and have very little control over that fact. 

I had way more responsibility in residency, but I think it was easier than clerkship for a few reasons. Main reason is that by the time you're a resident you have way more knowledge than when you were a med student. You take on more responsibility and you learn very quickly not to mess up. That, and you're also used to the slave abuse so it doesn't seem as bad as a resident as when you were a med student.

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On 19/12/2017 at 0:25 AM, ploughboy said:

M1 was great, M2 was even better.  M3 really really sucked.  M4 wasn't so bad.

R1 sucked almost as much as M3.  R2 kinda sucked, but everything started to click so that made it kind of fun.  R3 was kinda hit-and-miss, I actually don't remember much about it.  R4 was fun.  R5 would have been a lot of fun except for that stupid exam.  R6 was fun, but terrifying.  R7 was a ton of work, but a whole lot of fun.

I have fond memories of my training, but wouldn't really want to do it again.  The melancholy stops pretty soon after the first cheque hits the bank account.

R1 sure sucks as much as M3. I do hope you are right that it will eventually get better.

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On December 22, 2017 at 7:44 PM, Mithril said:

I had way more responsibility in residency, but I think it was easier than clerkship for a few reasons. Main reason is that by the time you're a resident you have way more knowledge than when you were a med student. You take on more responsibility and you learn very quickly not to mess up. That, and you're also used to the slave abuse so it doesn't seem as bad as a resident as when you were a med student.

You get some Stockholm syndrome on the go so it helps ease the pain. 

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On 12/19/2017 at 0:25 AM, ploughboy said:

M1 was great, M2 was even better.  M3 really really sucked.  M4 wasn't so bad.

R1 sucked almost as much as M3.  R2 kinda sucked, but everything started to click so that made it kind of fun.  R3 was kinda hit-and-miss, I actually don't remember much about it.  R4 was fun.  R5 would have been a lot of fun except for that stupid exam.  R6 was fun, but terrifying.  R7 was a ton of work, but a whole lot of fun.

I have fond memories of my training, but wouldn't really want to do it again.  The melancholy stops pretty soon after the first cheque hits the bank account.

R7?? Neurosurg?

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18 hours ago, NLengr said:

Sounds like the Royal college exam was written in R5. So that rules out cardiac or neurosurg. 

R6 and 7 were probably fellowship. 

Many 5 year residency programs have opportunities for 1 to 2 year fellowships following. Ie hepatobiliary or pediatric surgery following general surgery residency.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/21/2017 at 6:02 PM, brady23 said:

How are you finding UofT? I agree, it was a lot more work than I anticipated, but it seems doable so far. I'm so thankful for the break we're having.

lol, I think we're all in the same class and I can definitely agree. I would recommend any school in Ontario over U of T. It's not difficult work its more so how the program is structured and the amount of it. This frequent testing does nothing but stress students into cramming everyday instead of a couple of days a month. Coming in I thought I was past the part of my life where you feel like you're in a hamster wheel. Here if you take a weekend off you're taking one step forward and three steps back. Worse part is no one wants to admit they're stressed because "its U of T" 

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On 1/8/2018 at 7:24 PM, Mcatasaurus_rex said:

lol, I think we're all in the same class and I can definitely agree. I would recommend any school in Ontario over U of T. It's not difficult work its more so how the program is structured and the amount of it. This frequent testing does nothing but stress students into cramming everyday instead of a couple of days a month. Coming in I thought I was past the part of my life where you feel like you're in a hamster wheel. Here if you take a weekend off you're taking one step forward and three steps back. Worse part is no one wants to admit they're stressed because "its U of T" 

Agreed. Having anatomy every week, which requires a good chunk of time to prepare for adequately, on top of all the lectures and material we're expected to cover is a lot. I'm always prioritizing immediate tasks first, which leads me to fall behind in other tasks like lectures. I didn't realize how easy it is to fall behind when you take a day off, but we'll get through it, I'm really trying to focus more on myself this semester instead of school. 

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On 2018-01-08 at 7:24 PM, Mcatasaurus_rex said:

lol, I think we're all in the same class and I can definitely agree. I would recommend any school in Ontario over U of T. It's not difficult work its more so how the program is structured and the amount of it. This frequent testing does nothing but stress students into cramming everyday instead of a couple of days a month. Coming in I thought I was past the part of my life where you feel like you're in a hamster wheel. Here if you take a weekend off you're taking one step forward and three steps back. Worse part is no one wants to admit they're stressed because "its U of T" 

RT couldn't agree more.

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7 hours ago, Pippa756 said:

Ugh doesn't sound too healthy :-(

 

It really isn't. I'm surprised that this is the "norm" at UofT. Being overloaded with minute details/lecture slides that won't really be relevant to you until you're in clerkship. The analogy I've heard is that UofT teaches you a tremendous volume of information, and you're only going to end up retaining very little of it (maybe 5%), while at other schools, you learn less information but end up retaining more of it (maybe 20%), so it ends up being equal.

I'd very much rather be taught that basic key points that we need to know, and then some supplemental information for those who are interested in learning more or just for our reference. Wellness is much more important. 

 

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